Funny footwork

Peter Anastos, the choreographer for this weekend’s Nevada Ballet Theatre (NBT) production of Cinderella, is best known as the co-founder of the drag ballet company Les Ballets Trockaderos de Monte Carlo. For 10 years, he choreographed for the company and performed as its prima ballerina, Olga Tchickaboomskaya (all the “Trock” dancers have silly faux-Russian names), and the company still dances nearly all of his ballets from the original period. The Trocks and Anastos were sensations in the 1970s, an era often looked upon as the “Golden Age” of American ballet—a decade when ballet was the hot ticket, when American Ballet Theatre’s Gelsey Kirkland appeared on the cover of Time magazine and when Mikhail Baryshnikov received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Turning Point.

The Trocks perform a wide range of dance styles in a lighthearted manner, while remaining faithful to the original intent of the works. Although some of the choreographic jokes depend on ballet insider knowledge, the troupe’s strength has always been that the performances are enjoyable, even without an understanding of the art form. After the initial laughter generated by guys in tutus and the sight of large men balanced on the tips of their toes, the audiences always experience good dancing by serious professionals.

After his term with the company, Anastos pursued a varied career, including directing for the Washington Opera and choreographing for the Emmy-nominated Baryshnikov in Hollywood, a number of Broadway shows, the films The Addams Family and Addams Family Values and numerous works for many dance companies throughout the world. He also ran the Garden State Ballet in New Jersey and the Cincinnati Ballet.

He is here in Las Vegas to set his version of the classic fairy tale Cinderella on NBT. “This production is somewhat like the American Ballet Theatre production of the early 1990s,” says Anastos, “but almost all the choreography is new. I re-did the ballet 10 years later for the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Belgium, then again for the Hong Kong Ballet. Both these productions were improvements on the original. The NBT production is the latest of them all, and I think the best.”

One of Cinderella’s core components is the casting of two men as the stepsisters. “In Russia, the characters are played by women,” explains Anastos, who finds that the girl-on-girl meanness makes the story too dark and uncomfortable. He feels that by following the British pantomime convention of using men in drag, the comic effect lightens the tone and makes it more accessible for a general audience.

Cinderella is a good fit for NBT, as the ballet demands solid classical technique, along with top-notch comedic skills. Although NBT is predominantly a classical ballet company, the dancers have developed a broad range of dancing and acting skills. “Comedy is a very specific and often difficult achievement for dancers,” explains Anastos. “It takes an innate sense of timing, proportion, savvy and knowledge of how to skewer the ballet technique without being cheap. There are actually very few dancers who are really good at comedy—and, frankly, it’s not part of their training, so why should they be? But the ones who are can be fabulously funny and can really delight the audience.”

For the past 12 years, Anastos has enjoyed being a freelance choreographer. “In this role, I have to be very flexible,” he says. “Sometimes companies are looking for a specific ballet, like a closing work—rousing, funny and bright. These I do a lot! Sometimes we talk about other approaches. But I like to think of myself as a craftsman, and I can tailor a ballet to a company’s needs. What kind of dancers, what principals, what music—all these things I discuss with the artistic directors, and we come up with an idea. On the other hand, I have sometimes pitched a ballet idea to a company, and they accept it. The idea turns out to be something they want or are intrigued by. So it works both ways.”

Anastos recently was selected as the artistic director for the newly formed Ballet Idaho in Boise. “I haven’t run a ballet company in 12 years,” he explains. “I have been very happy freelancing all over the world. Actually, I didn’t think I wanted to run another company—I’ve run three, and that was enough! But the opportunity in Boise was unique. They are starting a brand new company from scratch—no inherited productions, dancers, scenery, costumes, nothing. It’s all going to be created fresh ... I will be creating an entirely new company.”

Cinderella

Nevada Ballet

895-2787