Boys doing ballet

Is a dancer, not has!

My teenage DS has a a dancer, he stopped ballet when covid started but kept up street dance and contemporary. He has over 8k in the bank from paid dance and modelling work, he also has muscles like the picture another poster put up.

Dance is fantastic for all children. Ignore the idiots.

My DS10 dances. He does every dance class his dance school does and loves it. He dances in festivals and is a brilliant tapper especially. He is about to do grade 4 exams in ballet, modern and tap. He has got loads of confidence and has rarely had anything negative said to him. He also plays football and if anyone says anything it is football playing boys and he replies saying how ballet is good training for footballers.. He hasn't started secondary school yet though and is at primary with the same kids since he was 4 who seem him as the dancer and accept it. He especially loves tap as it is very fast and he amazes me how fast his feet go.

Even Tom Holland was bullied for dancing people.com/movies/spider-man-homecoming-tom-holland-talks-being-bullied/

My DS2 does it and loves it. We haven't had any stupid comments though, who are the idiots making comments like that?

Maybe take him to some dance shows and performances to give him male role models. You have to be extremely fit to do ballet, it's very hard! I wish people wouldn't be so ignorant and see that.

My son did tap them stopped in year 2 due to comments.
He took up street dance and is still doing that now (age 13). He's suddenly become the only boy in the class though but he seems to love dancing and hasn't mentioned it at all, so I don't know if it bothers him.
There are a handful of boys in his dance school but these days it seems to be primary age ones. The older ones have now moved on, grown up (adults).
Shame really as dance is for all.

My son did ballet from age 3 to 5.5ish. He was one of only 2 boys in the class and he really did enjoy it. We had no jibes about it from adults as far as I was aware. The bullying came from the girls who were in both the ballet class and in his year at school who mounted an ongoing campaign to tell him that ballet is supposed to be for girls and he was not welcome (the other boy went to a different school so they didn't get a chance to hassle him about it). It was horrible and the girls in question were told they were being unfair once we adults (parents and teachers united) found out what had been happening but the damage was done and DS refused to go back.

Tell them you have him training to play Rugby for his country. Then point them in the direction of the Welsh National Rugby Team who do ballet as part of their training.

Some male dancers might wear a tutu, others won't
Male dancers don't wear tutus, it's just an idiotic jibe.

My son did ballet until he was about 12. He gave it up because his heart was in football and he wanted to be free for matches. He was good at ballet, his friends knew and I don’t remember any hurtful comments - he was pretty confident about it though, there were other boys in the dance school, and we went to professional performances where he could see that men do ballet too. If someone make a comment, try just saying “why do you think that?” and let them reveal the extent of their ignorance - which you can then correct.

I have no practical experience of ballet lessons... but a few years ago we took our DDs to see the Snowman ballet in London. One of the major parts is played by a boy aged around 10-12 years old if I remember right. Very talented children. Might becsome inspiration for him.

@Tempusfudgeit That’s exactly what I was thinking. This is a good interview- paywalled but the title gives you the gist www.thetimes.co.uk/article/matthew-ball-men-poncing-around-in-tights-that-really-couldnt-be-further-from-the-truth-82cxsdf0f @Eileen101 I’d be tempted to keep one or two of these photos on my phone and say, oh right, tutus, like this?
How ridiculous that people are still so silly about male dancers.

I believe that some of the examination bodies will now allow candidates to study either the male or female syllabus and wear whichever set uniform is consistent with their chosen gender, should they wish to do so, but that's not really relevant for this thread.

Ballet training is supposed to be excellent for football, would he be interested in combining his pastime?

Such a shame people are like this. At my daughters dance school (drama & singing as well) a few boys. A few have gone onto amazing future & carried on. One of the boys, his mum was advised to help with coordination as he really struggled - helped him on the rugby field!!

Such a shame people get hung up on it. The older ballet boys that have stuck with it have to be extremely fit to do many of the movements & lift the girls.

My DS (who turns out to have SEN but this was not really the issue at the time) did dance with us as a toddler then moved on to preschool ballet. He was the only boy in the class and the other girls wouldn't hold hands with him so he stopped wanting to go.

My ds gave up acro at 8 as he was teased.. he was VERY good ... he now does football at which he is VERY bad... but no teasing 🤷‍♀️... it makes me so cross and quite sad..

All of the boys at my dd's dance school seem to give up once they hit a certain age. I'm sure that some of them just don't want to do it any more, but I strongly suspect that others give up because of peer pressure etc. It's such a shame.

My son did ballet for a few years. He was very good at it and enjoyed it, but gave it up around age 9. I think if he had been able to join a class with others boys he would have stuck at longer. Luckily he never had to deal with any teasing or sarky comments.

As mentioned above, we’ve had similar comments (comparisons to borat mankinins etc). Exclusively from women interestingly ….
It is infuriating

Yeah, male ballet dancers are yuck.

(Swoon)

Steven Mcrae for reference.

Whenever I hear about boys doing Ballet I'm reminded of a guy I met Snowboarding who did Ballet.

There was a ramp set up, the best snowboarders in our group (who we're pretty good) could do 360 spins off it - this guy was doing 720s! We got friendly and he invited us to his Birthday party. He turned out to be absolutely ripped from all the dancing and lifting - full on pecs and 6 pack - and was surrounded by beautiful women, all equally in shape from their dancing and wanting to date a male ballet dancer, who were in short supply! He absolutely had it made!

I'm not really sure what my point was, but i guess it's osmething along the line of it's worth putting up with some stupid comments now, because it will set him up well for the future! Even if he doesn't stick with dance it will give him a lot of transferable skills

I don’t understand - who made that comment? Is it someone you know well?