THE world-famous Les Ballets Trockadero from New York was on stage at Qingdao Grand Theater recently. Founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional and classical ballet in parody form, it is a company of professional male dancers performing the full range of the ballet and modern dance repertoire. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents, and underlying incongruities of serious dance. The fact that men dance all the parts — heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses, angst-ridden Victorian ladies — enhances rather than mocks the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting and amusing the most knowledgeable, as well as laymen, in the audience. (Wang Yuanyuan, Wang Pin) | 