Men en pointe II

Nina Enimenimynimova (left) in rehearsal

The New York Times
December 9, 2010
Radical Turn for the Trocks’ Youngest Sylph
By ROSLYN SULCAS

It’s a classic tale of struggle and determination, of hard work and enterprise, of the journey from a small town to the big city. It’s the tale of the passage from the East to the West, and of the transformation of a young Chinese boy into, well, a ballerina. More precisely (say it slowly), into Nina Enimenimynimova. Now say it faster: EE-nee-MEE-nee-MIN-i-MOH-va.

That’s the stage name for Long Zou, the youngest dancer in Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male company that has achieved worldwide fame by putting its dancers on point and in tutus to romp through some of ballet’s most famous works. The ensuing comedy comes from the conceit that this is an old-fashioned Russian ballet company, full of larger-than-life divas (complete with stage names) and overblown egos. But the Trocks, as they are usually called, also pay loving homage to the cult of the ballerina and faithful attention to choreography, often performing historical gems little seen elsewhere.

It seems an unlikely job for Mr. Zou, 21, whose upbringing and training involved little exposure to anything other than traditional ballet, and whose rapier-sharp technique and youth would probably have easily won him a job in a conventional ballet company.

“In the old days it was an older crowd that came to dance with us towards the end of their careers,” said Tory Dobrin, the company’s artistic director, during a rehearsal at the 42nd Street Studios on Monday. “In my generation joining the Trocks was a career wrecker; now we are getting dancers out of the academies.”

Mr. Dobrin attributes the change to social and cultural adaptation to homosexuality over the last decades.

“When we started we were a cult attraction,” he said. “Thirty years later we have been seen in 500 towns all over the world. Most dancers have seen us, on video if not live.”

Mr. Zou was one of those far-flung dancers who saw the Trocks on film during his years at a ballet school in Guangzhou, China, a nine-hour train ride from his home in Liling, a small town in Hunan Province. He had struggled to get his parents to send him to local dance classes at 10 after a teacher suggested that he had talent, and had to persuade them again after he was accepted by the Guangzhou school.

“They were ambitious for me to go to university,” said Mr. Zou, who is slight and soft spoken but clearly possessed of considerable will. Eventually they agreed, and at the school, a training ground for the Guangzhou Ballet, Mr. Zou found himself following a near-military schedule. Students ran for 30 minutes before morning dance classes, attended academic classes in the afternoons, and had homework and more dance practice in the evenings. Sometimes, in dance class, they would be given 100 grands battements (one leg thrown high to front, side or back).

“The first years were hard,” he said in English. “Everything was regulated: where you put a glass down, how you made your bed. You could only call your parents once a week, and we only went home twice a year.”

Mr. Zou thrived, nonetheless, and secretly nurtured a growing desire to dance abroad. “In China we don’t have news from outside, and it’s hard to get out,” he said. “There is no Facebook no YouTube, it’s very limited what you can see. When I told my mother and uncle that I might want to dance elsewhere, they laughed at me.”

In his final year Mr. Zou lobbied the school director to send him to the 2007 Prix de Lausanne, an international competition for young dancers.

“If the person doesn’t do well, sometimes it is difficult for everyone, because it has to be reported to the government,” he said. The director eventually agreed to write the necessary letter, but his parents paid for the trip, and he went with little preparation and no coach.

He made it through to the semifinals and was offered a scholarship to the Central School of Ballet in London. During his year there, he said, his artistic education really began.

“I saw a completely different dance world,” he said. “In China, they tell you, this is right or wrong. You can never doubt your teachers. In London, I understood you can move in this way or another way. There were so many possibilities.”

Mr. Zou had always liked dancing on point — “when the girls started, I would do it for fun” — and when he heard that the Trocks would be coming to London, he remembered that his school friends had jokingly told him that he should join the company. He e-mailed Mr. Dobrin to request an audition, but had to return to China when an extension of his British student visa was denied. In March 2009 he managed to arrange an audition in New York, where he was participating in the Youth America Grand Prix competition.

“Initially I wasn’t that interested, because we travel so much, and it’s a nightmare to get visas for non-Americans,” Mr. Dobrin said. “But I saw a really beautifully trained dancer, in the Russian style, which is important for us. And even though he is super-shy, I could tell he is a bit of a character.”

Mr. Zou joined the company almost immediately on a tour to Japan, baptized by Mr. Dobrin as Ms. Enimenimynimova. (She is described on the Trocks’ Web site as “an elfin charmer to be likened to a lemon soufflé poised delicately on the brink of total collapse.” His male persona, Ketevan Iosifidi, is “an artist in the classical, heroic, tragical mold.”

Mr. Zou said: “In the beginning you have to get used to dancing on point, and the bruised nails and blisters,” he said. “The way you balance and turn is different; you have to learn to adjust your weight. But it’s fun too. I grew up taking everything very seriously. It’s nice to do crazy things onstage.”

Despite their initial opposition to his career, his parents are not judgmental about his current job, he said. “In Chinese opera the men play everything,” Mr. Zou remarked. “There is no problem with the Trocks.”

Personal comment: It’s always nice to see someone with talent becoming successful and there are so few positive accounts of men in pointe shoes. Since I have male readers who would like to have been as successful on their toes as he is I thought it would be nice to post this to show that it can sometimes be done.