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Original poster

Ballet for boys

12 replies

knowler · 01/10/2014 19:11

I previously posted about what activities you do with younger dcs and, unprompted, ds1 (4 in a couple of months) has a expressed an interest in ballet.

He has lots of friends but they are nearly all boys. Plus, in a lot of ways, he is a stereotypical boy in that he is super boisterous, noisy, constantly pretending to be a roaring monster etc.

If your ds has gone to ballet, how did they get on?

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UniS · 01/10/2014 19:15

My D's enjoyed ballet aged 3 & 4, transfered seamlessly to creative dance aged 5 ish then onto folk dance age 7. He is still dancing aged 8, performs with his group at folk festivals and the odd competition.
He is great fun to dance with at cheildhs.

Redcoats · 01/10/2014 19:20

Not ballet, but a general dance class. My DTs went to one at 3/4 ish. There were a couple of girls at nursery who went and they wanted to go to. They were the only boys there. It really put them off and they didn't join in at all.

Give it a go.

Oakmaiden · 01/10/2014 19:22

My 9 year old boy does ballet, tap and modern. He is very happy, and keen!

I think it helps that there are two other boys in his class.

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Original poster

knowler · 01/10/2014 19:25

Hmm, I am worried he will be put off if there's no boys there. I will do some investigating to see if some classes have more boys than others. Thanks.

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UniS · 01/10/2014 19:27

DS has sometimes been the only boy but mostly his best mate has been in same class. Best mate came along to his first class with my DS one afternoon , loved it and mum let him join as his big sister was in the next class up. Best mate is slightly less keen than DS so has had the odd spell off dance as he would rather do another activity that clashed.
Currently there are two boys in a group of 6 kids, last summer it was 4 boys out of 8 kids.

BikeRunSki · 01/10/2014 19:39

Ds did ballet for a term and a half when he was 3. He went with his best friend (a girl). She didn't really like it and stopped after s term. He carried on without her for a bit, but lost enthusiasm without her.

StarMeKitten · 03/10/2014 08:21

My DD has been in a few ballet classes and I've never seen any boys in the classes. For that reason I'd be tempted to look a class that combines some other forms of dance such as modern & tap which would be more likely to have other boys in as he might feel self conscious been the only one

OverAndAbove · 03/10/2014 08:27

The very few boys in my DCs dance school tend to do really well. They get a lot of attention and I think possibly concentrate more than some of the girls who sometimes get in a bit of a gaggle. There is one boy in my DD's class and he is excellent; he also has very good posture, for which ballet is very beneficial!

claraschu · 03/10/2014 08:34

My son did ballet until he was about 10. He only stopped because his teacher closed her school and moved, and other classes were too far away. He was the only boy, and it never bothered him, so don't make assumptions about this. He is also a very "boyish" boy, loves rugby and football; ballet went well with this.

KingscoteStaff · 04/10/2014 19:13

If you're in London, the RAD headquarters in Battersea runs Boys Only class from age 7, and there are lots of boys in the Primary and Pre Primary classes.

My son did ballet from 5 to 11, and I can always spot him on the rugby / football pitch by his amazingly straight posture!

Solo · 04/10/2014 19:23

My Dd's ballet class has one boy of about 7. Not sure how long he's been going but he seems to get on just fine.

As I understand it, if boys continue with ballet and they want to eventually become professional ballet dancers, generally they are snapped up as there are so few of them. This is regardless of them being 'just' good as opposed to being fabulous.

Ballet is good for both sexes.

peppajay · 05/10/2014 22:32

My son does a musical theatre class and he is the only boy out of 15 girls. Didn't worry him at the beginning but he has just started to say he hates being the only boy and why do no other boys go??? He hates football or rugby and loves singing and dancing. He has started to play up in classes now and I think he is bored as he definitely doesn't have the same concentration capacity as the girls- but on the other hand he is the youngest in the class and the class is 1 and a half hours!! He says he wants to stop but he doesn't want to stop so not sure how 'gender' related him wanting to give up is. There really isn't many dance schools around us with boys in - everyone seems to do mini kickers or football. I have a friend whose poor son hates football but her fiancé insists both their sons do football as they are boys!!

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