Les Ballets Trockaderos de Monte Carlo

The PBS documentary follows these androgenous men
as they paint their faces white with creams, darken their eyes
and slip on the pink frills of tutus and toe shoes.

They leap and pirouette and arabesque and flutter
twirl and take various numerical positions as they
try to “start unknown, finish unforgettable”

and yes, there’s the occasional clumsy movement or two
and near falls, but it does not feel like satire, not exactly.
They call themselves The Trocks and claim

their performances as satire but real mockery seems absent.
It looks too serious, it’s not particularly exaggerations, not slapstick
it’s not drag with bawdy jokes and sexual innuendos.

So how to explain this oddity? They claim they are poking fun
at a strictly gendered art form and sending messages of equality
inclusion and social justice. But I am puzzled, I am mystified.

But then I think, who am I to question why we seek
to do what gives us pleasure or for that matter, pain.