The ballerinas of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo never change. With the never-say-die showbiz spirit of a faded Russian touring company, and a whiff of greasepaint and glamour, Ida Nevasayneva, Maya Thickenthighya and the other ballet warriors are eternally giving heroic performances, triumphantly knocking off a technical trick or two, flirting with the audience, elbowing rivals out of the way.

When the Trocks, as they are known, gave their first performances in a downtown New York loft in 1974, the men who put the show together didn’t imagine their group would outlast the two-weekend run. Fifty years later, the company — an all-male comic ensemble whose dancers play both the ballerinas and the princes — is a beloved and applauded institution that has survived the AIDS epidemic; seen gay marriage become legal and the advent of transgender rights; and somehow never changed its identity.

Beginning Tuesday, the company celebrates its 50th anniversary season with two programs at the Joyce Theater, featuring versions of “Swan Lake,” “Giselle” and “Raymonda,” among other pieces.

Linda Shelton, the Joyce’s executive director, said that the first time the company performed at the Joyce, in 1997: “We took a photo outside the theater with me standing amid the dancers in full costume and makeup. Taxi cabs were almost crashing into each other!”

New York taxi drivers probably wouldn’t bat an eyelid at the sight of men in tutus these days, but Tory Dobrin, the company’s artistic director, said they were never interested in shocking anyone or making a political statement. “Our point of view has always been: We are men doing performances of ballet in drag for comedic purposes,” he said.