I want to get straight to the point with this article and explore why I think so many parents are so strongly opposed to their children taking ballet classes and where the American prejudice against dancers comes from. I am not trying to offend anyone with this article, but at the same time I have received so much flak and been met with so much ignorance as a dancer that what I have to say may irritate some. I hope you take this with an open mind as it is a real problem and I try to explain what are the real and basic reasons for it.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard my friends laugh or make jokes at any man in tights dancing on stage. In the days before YouTube and cable TV, movies could be shown at school as part of a history or civilization class and would inevitably touch on the arts and then at some point ballet would be shown. As soon as the dancer appeared, the banter and giggles followed. As I had been practicing ballet myself since I was 4 years old, this always hit me hard, but most of the time no one else knew I took ballet, so I just sat quietly and listened to the sarcastic comments. I have to say that while this is not the same as someone being teased or joked about because of their race, I think I know something of that same sentiment because I have always loved ballet and would never stop doing it except listening. people put down something that I knew was so good and that was a part of me that really hurt in a way that leaves you feeling totally powerless to deal with it.
Much later in life, I finally got the perspective to look back on my childhood and also listen to the comments being made again and make some insights into where this bias came from. What follows is my analysis of prejudice against male dancers.
1) Smooth or graceful movement confused with moving “like a girl”.
Many, many men never fully appreciate the value of being able to have a wide range of motion for the body and the ability to move separate parts at the same time without trouble maintaining balance. Virtually every sport anyone has seen on television since the 1950s shows highly trained athletes moving in a straight line as fast or with as much force as possible. Male dancers SHOULD move in a different way because a dancer’s goal is to maintain balance rather than impart a large amount of energy to a ball or another person’s body to knock them over. Many mistook this for the ballet that makes men move like girls. Other than this, ballet actually gets men moving a lot like someone who practices Tai Chi or Kung Fu or especially Yoga. Add to this the idea that ballet is a pure creative exercise to music, not something meant to hurt or knock another person unconscious, and you get to the base of one of ballet’s great misconceptions regarding men. Interestingly, this is also why many men find ballet extremely difficult to do and gain a grudging respect for it later in life if they ever take a class their daughter might be in during an event. Open day type.
2) Boys don’t wear tights.
Let’s examine this one. When I warned that I might offend some people with this article, this part is exactly what I meant. I don’t know how else to approach this, so here goes: all male athletes wear tights or much less. swimmers? You’re wearing lycra swimsuits. Fighters? Seriously, what is that spandex bodytard thing you guys are wearing? Soccer? Lycra-spandex cut stockings with extra padding and cup. Don’t confuse the shoulder pads and the top of the jersey with the fact that you too are wearing a cropped version of the tights. And, if guys are doing “girly” things when they dance, what do you call getting right behind a center’s butt and getting your hands almost to his crotch before a snap of the ball?
3) My son will be gay if he takes ballet
Now I’m a straight man on fire if you ask my wife. I know a lot of gay guys, but a lot of the gay guys I know are addicted to sports and never did ballet. And as muscular as they are from working all the time, they would have as much luck doing ballet as Arnold Schwarzenegger. To be honest, this one really stumps me and comes up a lot as a reason why parents don’t let their kids take ballet. Are there gay dancers? Sure. Are there gay men in all professions, including sports? Yes, there are, and again, as the football and wrestling examples given above show, if I were a gay man, I would play those sports because I would be in direct physical contact with other athletes rather than ballet, where 99.99% of the time you are dancing with GIRLS! More specifically, you’re associating with girls, which involves holding them in all sorts of very difficult positions and breaking a sweat with them, which no gay man wants because most gay men don’t want close contact with women. Honestly, I have to say that there is simply no basis for this bias, just as there is no basis for any racial bias and the answer to any bias is for education not to argue the bias itself because it is based on ignorance or outright stupidity. . To be brutally honest, parents who dominate their children too much run a much higher risk of turning their children gay than any art form, including ballet, could represent.
Now many children, boys and girls, do not like ballet and do not take ballet classes and that is fine, no activity, sport or art is for everyone. I only hope to provoke verification of the premises for anyone who has this ignorant bias against children taking up ballet because for those who do, ballet can be a lifelong benefit that will improve mental and physical health, boost performance academic. performance, almost guarantee a college scholarship for any dancer halfway through, and foster creativity and imagination for a lifetime. This is not something to oppose.
