Ah the elusive boy's ballet class. With the amount of strong male dancers being produced from year to year it's hard to imagine such a class to be so rare. When you think of ballet you generally think of the tutu's, pointe shoes, over all femininity and well, women. Little girls have tutu aspirations and the competition is fierce for those coveted prima-ballerina parts.
Where does this leave men? Where do our princes, cavaliers, kings and nutcrackers come from? I can say as a ballet teacher keeping a boy's interest is tough. If a boy doesn't have a strong male role model to look up to in a ballet class they're more and more likely to not care and stop taking classes at a young age. Angel Corella believes that male dancers are born to be male dancers. Its something in them from day one of their existence, I wouldn't know, I'm not a boy.
Everything I've ever studied about dance between men and women is men have so much support from the ballet community and women are a dime a dozen and replaceable. I've worked with both sexes for teachers and the perspective men have on the anatomy of the ballet dancers has always fascinated me. One of my favorite teachers of all time was a man (Tom Barber) who would constantly drag my class and I back to the basics, which made class extremely difficult some days.
There are entire websites devoted to boys who do ballet with plenty of encouragement from professional dancers, honest opinions of parents and different advice from male dancers world wide for young men. In such a female dominate field of study it never ceases to amaze me the strength and the courage it takes to be the only boy in a ballet class. Angel Corella, Ethan Stiefel,
Mikail Baryshnikov and George Balanchine have really paved the way for future generation of men in the ballet field. Younger Generations will appreciate Danil Simkin's fresh approach to dance and his blog will really connect with younger boys needing to feel "cool."
Where ever you are and whoever you are, I highly reccomend taking a ballet class at some point in your life. You'll never know what you're missing until you've tried it. My younger brother (13) takes ballet on a regular basis because it "calms" him and is a positive outlet between video games and sports. I know quite a few men who started taking ballet in their late teens and now are fellow teachers that are so passionate about what they do, they blow me out of the water at times! And my adult ballet class has a few men that take ballet as a way to keep in a shape and practice an art form. Ballet is so obviously not just for girls, it just sickens me to hear that backwards mentality being produced for boys. Men who dance have much more endurance than professional athletes its hilarious!
One ignorant statement that has always bothered me is the "you have to be gay to be a male dancer" train of thought. Boys who dance are not necessarily gay, as a matter of fact I've danced with more straight men then gay men in my life time! Many of whom had a wife and children. People are people and an assumption is almost always wrong.
Alright my lovelies what would you like to hear about next? Message my facebook or comment here to let me know! -Ms Ivy
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