Dance is a physical and athletic activity requiring great skill, strength, and agility. Sounds like an ideal fit for energetic boys… so where are they?? Well, we know that public perception is difficult to change and, in general, the current perception is that dance is not a “manly” activity. For ballet and some other dance styles, the aesthetic is for movement to look effortless. Even though the audience knows that men in dance must be in top physical form, beauty and elegance masks the blood, sweat, and tears it seems we like to see from men in our culture. Therefore, the grittier athletic activities are favored for boys, while dance is considered a better pursuit for girls. This is, of course, a simplification of the gender issues in dance. However, to a young boy or teen pursuing dance, the road is often anything but simple.
So, how do we get boys and keep them in our dance classes and schools? Here are some suggestions:
- Consider the appearance of your studio from a boy’s perspective. Are the walls pink? Does your artwork feature only females, or fluffy animals? Is the furniture flowery? This will not attract boys. Try more vibrant decor with clean lines and feature artwork that depicts athletic, strong, and powerful images of both men and women. And, for the younger ones – show children dancing in interesting ways, not just a row of cute little girls in tutus and bows.
- When advertising your classes through ads, articles, or on your website, make it clear in the pictures and wording that boys are welcome, too.
- Hook them when they’re young children. This is a great time for boys to start taking class because learning is often more playful and movement more free. However, boys/parents of boys will not be rushing to sign up for the Petite Princesses and Fabulous Fairies classes, and will not appreciate twirling around like “Cinderella” or tip-toeing through daisies. Both boys and girls will love a creative and conceptual approach to dance in which all of the movement spectrum is explored – fast/slow, sharp/smooth, high (on the toes)/low (on the floor), etc.
- Offer classes that interest or are geared specifically to boys. Hip-hop, tumbling, capoeira, rhythm tap, movement for actors/stage combat, all-male ballet, are good examples.
- Make sure that in mixed-gender classes that the instructors are aware of their musical and movement selections. Some teachers are so used to only teaching females that boys in the class become an afterthought or a problem to work into what they’ve already planned. Choose teachers who have experience instructing and choreographing for young men and hire or bring in male teachers whenever possible. Attending conventions or workshops with male teachers is also a plus.
- For boys who have elected to study ballet more intensely, a stricter dress code is appropriate. Adopt a more flexible dress code for recreational classes so that boys will feel comfortable. Big and baggy are still out, but a t-shirt and sweats or shorts can work for boys. Remember, it is important to address proper undergarments as the boys reach 10 or 11. This site has a nice list of other sports and activities that require tight clothing (in case they need a reminder).
- Include partnering elements in choreography whenever possible. Even young boys can do simple lifts and assists with a partner. Just be sure you know how to teach these safely.
- Offer opportunities for men and boys to perform even if they’re not regular students. For example, create special father dances (these can be serious or humorous), have dancers bring along boyfriends, friends, or brothers to learn choreography for an exciting finale (perhaps a swing or salsa number), invite a sports team to participate in some unique choreography (use movements they would normally do in practice as inspiration), check out local boys or youth clubs and see if they have a break-dancing group that would like a chance to show their stuff on stage.
- Find ways of reminding boys that dance is a physical and athletic activity. Emphasize this in the work done in class, by watching male dancers in action, and by helping them to see and compare the relationship between athleticism in dance and sports.
- Offer free classes.
All of these suggestions will help boys and young men to feel more comfortable in dance class. Keep in mind that despite your best efforts, you may still lose talented young males due to peer or parental pressure. Someday they may return, if not to you, perhaps to dance in general. However, it may be a comfort to know that even if you lose some guys here or there, these ideas will also benefit your female dancers. Young women are sometimes surprised when, as a college student, they are suddenly expected to be fierce and powerful dancers. In many dance studios I’ve found that, starting at a very young age, the physicality of movement is limited to what is considered feminine, pretty, or sexy, creating very one-dimensional dancers. Creating a space and an attitude within your school in which boys are encouraged to dance will provide a richer experience for all of your dancers, parents, and community.
“One of my favorite things to do in a boys’ class is to set up an obstacle course with four to six stations that include stretches and splits, jumps and turns, an acrobatic trick, hip-hop or break dancing, and, always, something they improvise. I am consistently surprised at how committed to this exercise the guys are. In fact, by the end of the year, they usually ask to make up their own course and steps. Talk about time consuming—sometimes the course takes up the whole class, but I love it when time zooms by during a long, busy night.”
See the rest of this article: Psyching Out The Guys by Gregg Russell
What are some ways your school encourages boys to dance? What do you consider to be the advantages of having boys/men in class? If you are a guy, please share your perspective or experiences.
Nichelle (owner/editor)
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Thank-you for this. Well said. I wish that some of the teachers my son had early on in his dance training had been more aware of these issues. Ballet teachers often wonder where the boys are but if they looked around at their environment, they’d have soem fo the answers. My son is now a dancer with a national ballet company but some of these consideratison would have made his life easier when he was eight years old! I’m glad to have stumbled on your blog.
Thank you very much. I’m glad that you appreciated the post and took the time to say so. Congratulations to your son for weathering an often girl-centric environment! I’m sure you had much to do with getting him through the tough times. I hope you will continue to visit the blog.
Excellent article! One thing I’d like to see is ballet technique classes for sports – pro football players study turnout for injury prevention – but why not study it earlier? I’ve never seen a ballet studio offer this. Tennis players also study ballet for developing footwork.
Another good draw – enhancing performance and preventing injury in sports. Thanks, Dianne!
Great article, with much good advices! I specially believe in your point number 7! Partnering can be so much! off-balance-supports and supported jumps are easy to do with even young children, and gives the boy/man a feeling of being “in control”. I know I enjoy the feeling that this lift or pose would not be possible without my help – the feeling of two dancers working together gives the boy (or partner) self-confidence and joy!
Also, I think I’ve never met a male dancer that don’t like to jump! Battu’s and echappés are easy jumps that can be developed into quite challenging and good looking jumps, for class and stage alike. And it’s teachable to boys that doesn’t necessarily have much knowledge of ballet technique.
As for music, everything with a little spark in it is satisfying for men! Try a masurka for easy jump cominations, or a grande allegro with some “schwung” to it!
Finally, make easy variations on known pieces! I remeber my reacher showing me the male variation from 2.act Giselle, before I ever had seen the ballet. He taught me the variation, rendering the more difficult stuff into things I could manage, and it worked out great! The boys may need a little higher technical level to do this, but you don’t have to wait until they are Ethan Stiefels to learn the swan prince or Basil from Don Q!
If you present ballet for boys in a good and challenging way before they “learn” that it’s femaleish and “uncool”, it will be much easier for them to react to people saying it is sassy to dance (it will happen, eventually) – because they KNOW it’s not!
Thanks for a great blog!
H
Thanks Henrik! I’m so glad you stopped by. You’ve made some great additions and I appreciate everything you are doing for men in ballet over at Tights and Tiaras!
It has really worth it to read your article. We’re from Cyprus and my 11year old boy keeps asking us to register him for dance classes. This is the 4rth year he is asking it but we always find an excuse and try to avoid the conversation. I know that this is not the perfect way to deal with it but we (his dad and I) feel very uncomfortable with this choice (the culture in cyprus is a bit conservative and not very open to such choices). However, we both started now reconsiderating this, since we often see our son dancing taps and creating his own choreographies which means that it might not only be a temporalily need. We have visited some dance schools but exactly as you described it they were all very girlish decorated, with pink walls ect. Our boy doesn’t look or behave feminine at all. He is an excellent fencer and a good swimmer. Do you have maybe some idea of any dance school for boys in Nicosia-Cyprus. I would be grateful to you if you could help us.
Antigoni
Hi there, I Have been working with boys for about 15 years and have a boys department of about 175 boys. Check out out work on on out site. Might be interesting to exchange ideas.
Greetings,
Wil.
Having taught ballet at many studios in the Tri-state NY/NJ area, I will agree that lots of studios still don’t APPEAR to be very welcoming to the male gender. Not that I think we should always classify colors and things like: “blue is for boy”, “pink is for girl”… but at the same time maybe we should be thinking a little more “gender neutral” or “people neutral”. Dance is for everyone. I’ve danced my entire life, all sorts of styles, and I’ve never really associated dance with the color pink, or flowers, (or wanted to look at them while doing my plies)… other than in ballet I was required to wear pink tights 🙂