Beginner ballet boy - how to find more boys?!

[Bluebird22]

Once the boys start, it's their dads who are their absolute biggest supporters! I teach a lot of boys and when I speak to their dads they are just bursting with pride. It's just a case of breaking down people's misconceptions about boys dancing and ballet in general, past the age of 5 twirling around and pretending to be a fairy isn't what ballet is about! Once people see the strength, stamina and commitment required with ballet, you can't fail to be impressed

[Bluebird22]

And also you can't brag that your son is surrounded by beautiful girls all the time if they are playing football

[Legseleven]

Perhaps Dads would benefit from lots of publicity in studios about Rio Ferdinand having trained in ballet and even being a ?Central associate. There is no reason why a boy can't do football and ballet - and his football will be much improved as a result of his ballet!

[Dance*is*life]

I really don't understand why there is still such an obsessive belief that male ballet dancers are gay - out of all the  dancers in our local company I think only one is gay and pretty much all the rest are married and with children!  Look at the generations of Russian male dancers such as Nikolai Fadeyechev and his son Alexai, Maris Liepa and his son Andris - I am sure there are others.  Dancing ballet does not make a boy gay!  And if he dances and happens to be so, so what?  I think one thing that has come to light with the more open gay community is that they are in every walk of life, doing a myriad of jobs and careers. And yet boys who dance ballet are still being teased and are afraid to own up to their so called friends that they are learning ballet!  Grrrrr! 

Edited February 2, 2016 by Dance*is*life

[Nicola H]

On 1/15/2016 at 18:04, annaliesey said:

Just to add to what Taxi has said .. My DD age 11 is notorious for attempting to recruit boys into ballet.

 

Quite funny to read instagram chat with hip hop boys her age telling her she's cute and they want to dance with her and all that blarney and she will immediately say "oh yeah, come to ballet then we'll see!"

 

next she'll be asking them  ' do you even lift ? '  ... ' how about a  girl insteadof dead weights ' ... 

[sophie_rebecca]

Hi YorkshirePudding,

 

The RAD have recently launched their ProjectB to get more boys into dance, I know yours is already dancing but there are a few boys only classes led by Iain Mackay that he might enjoy just being with other like minded dancers, there's some more info here https://www.rad.org.uk/learn-to-dance/project-b 

 

Soph

[YorkshirePudding]

Thank you Sophie-Rebecca looks interesting.

Yes he is dancing, and is looking forward to the Northern Ballet open boys classes starting in September, although lack of boys in normal dance school classes does not seem to deter him at all.

[MrsMoo2]

Hi Yorkshire Pudding, I'm over t'pennines! My DS has been dancing for nearly 2 years and is 10 next week. He asked could he start dancing at 3 when Russell Grant was on Strictly Come Dancing! We took him to see Russell in Grease the musical when it toured and I cheekily tweeted him while we were en route! Just before curtain up I got a message back saying, "bring him to the stage door after the show"

He was so lovely with DS, showed him round the dressing rooms, let him try on all the costumes and that was it! DS then spoke of nothing else for 2 years till he took his first class! ?? Now he takes ballet, tap, jazz, acro and contemporary.

 

DS is also the only boy in his G2 class, so I try to get him in as many workshops as I can. He took  a couple of auditions this year for experience really, didn't get any but he so loved his boy classes.

I'm going to look into classes at the Northern in Manchester and Centrepointe in Didsbury. We currently dance in Chester.

 

Think there is a real need for a boys class in the north, not driven by audition but by enthusiasm.

 

Nice to have you here...??? xx

[Flowerpot]

Totally recommend Centre Pointe which is in Denton near Stockport.

[amum/Cathy]

Definitely yes to Centre Pointe. I used to take ds to their annual shows for inspiration and to see Matthew Koon, who trained there before and after being a Billy Elliot, (and he trained with Northern Ballet Associates, before he went on to ENBS). I remember seeing a young Rhys Yeomans performing in their shows as well, before he went off to be a Billy, (and of course he's just won the ballet section of Young Dancer of the year 2017.) 

[Legseleven]

Rhys Yeomans has just graduated from ENBS and has a contract with ENB.

[Jan McNulty]

57 minutes ago, amum/Cathy said:

Definitely yes to Centre Pointe. I used to take ds to their annual shows for inspiration and to see Matthew Koon, who trained there before and after being a Billy Elliot, (and he trained with Northern Ballet Associates, before he went on to ENBS). I remember seeing a young Rhys Yeomans performing in their shows as well, before he went off to be a Billy, (and of course he's just won the ballet section of Young Dancer of the year 2017.) 

 

And indeed Matthew Koon has just been promoted to Junior Soloist at Northern Ballet.  He is one of my favourite dancers.

[amum/Cathy]

7 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

And indeed Matthew Koon has just been promoted to Junior Soloist at Northern Ballet.  He is one of my favourite dancers.

I've yet to see him perform with them, but definitely planning it. His mother used to get us the Centre Pointe tickets - she came on here (or the forum's predecessor rather). She and Matthew were very encouraging to ds.