Robert Carter (ballet dancer)

Robert Carter
Born Charleston, South Carolina
Occupation Ballet dancer

Robert Carter is an American primo donna[note 1] ballet dancer for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, or "Trocks".[1] As a lead dancer and its most senior member, Carter is the public face of the all-male dance troupe, granting many interviews and garnering significant international reviews.[2][3][4] A full time dancer, he is "paid enough" as a lead dancer, despite being non-union, to avoid having a "side job."[2]

Personas

Carter has performed female roles under the name of "Olga Supphozova"[1][4][5][6][7][note 2] a "glamorous"[5] and "feisty platinum blonde" who is, in his own words, "fastidiously delicate and pretty."[2] He also performs under the male persona known as Yuri Smirnov.[2] As Olga, he claims to have started in a KGB lineup, and as Yuri, he supposedly was in the Kirov Ballet.[1] These personas use "cod-Russian stage names," according to one British critic.[7] The names used by the "Trocks" are "fake ballerina names" that are part of the joke.[4]

Career

Carter was born and was raised in Charleston, South Carolina.[1][3] He started dancing at age eight, and first saw the Trocks at age ten, which inspired him to dance like them, en pointe,[4] at age eleven[2] or twelve.[3] He trained at the Ivey Ballet School and the Joffrey Ballet School.[1][3][4] He performed with a number of dance groups, including the Florence Civic Ballet, Bay Ballet Theater, and the Dance Theater of Harlem.[1][3]

Carter joined the "Trocks" in 1995.[1][2][3] He started with "the easier stuff" like Go for Barocco, followed by "harder stuff" such as Paquita and Swan Lake,[2] especially works by Balanchine.[3]

Dancing with the Trocks, was his life dream, says Carter:

I didn't want to be a girl, but I knew I could do a lot of the same stuff and some of the stuff they couldn't do because I had the strength being a boy.... I could do the stuff en pointe and it's fun.

— Robert Carter, in an ABC News Nightline interview, 2008.[4]

Accolades and criticism

Carter has received many kudos from significant critics. These include Jennifer Dunning [5] and Gia Kourlas of the New York Times,[6] Robert Gottlieb of The New York Observer,[2] Joan Acocella of The New Yorker,[2] Sanjoy Roy of The Guardian,[7] and Susan Reiter of Newsday.[2] ABC News said, "And it's more than just hilarious -- it's hilariously impressive."[4]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Also known as a ballerina assoluta, see Finis Jhung, "Interview with Robert Carter", q.v.
  2. ↑ "Olga, supper is over."

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo official website. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Finis Jhung, "Interview with Robert Carter", found at Dance Art website. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rachel Straus, "Men On Pointe," Dance Spirit magazine, April 1, 2008, found at Dance Spirit website. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Nightline staff, "Meet the Trocks: Men, Tutus and Talent: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Have Entertained for More Than 30 Years," found at ABC News website. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
  5. 1 2 3 Jennifer Dunning, "Ballet Review: Beyond Satire, With Daring Feats," August 19, 1998, The New York Times, found at New York Times website. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
  6. 1 2 "Robert Carter, the company’s unofficial fouetté queen, whips off dozens of turns in this tutu dreamland as Olga Supphozova." Gia Kourlas, "Dance Review: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: Heroines of Ballet, Heroically Funny," The New York Times, December 22, 2008, found at New York Times website. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
  7. 1 2 3 Sanjoy Roy, "Dance: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: Peacock Theatre, London," (4 stars out of 5), 22 September 2006 found at The Guardian website. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
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