Boys dance

[Beno-dancer]

I believe, as a dancer myself from the age of three, that boys dance does not get the same recognition as girls dance does. Dance has given me a lot of confidence in performance, at home, school and socially. It is a great skill to have and is more than just prancing about. It is another way to express yourself and with so many 'angry' teenage boys on the streets causing havoc dance is a great way to channel this anger and energy. If I had not been forced to stay at my dance school by my parents I would have probably left due to the lack of other boys. I feel that dance schools should promote, make it easier and more comfortable for boys to join and not to be put in a class of girls who may find it easier. Dance is also a great way to keep fit and with England being on the edge of becoming one of the worst country with child obesisty dancing would be a great way to help with this problem. Dance at the moment does not seem 'cool' for boys and I feel the dance community to change this view that if sticks could leave boys dance to fade out.

What do others think on the matter of boys dance?

[Sagitta]

welcome to df beno. What types of dance do you do?

[fascination]

welcome to DF beno...it is a complex issue ...difficult to get alot of males in the door, dificult to keep them there b/c they have so few peers...probably a host of other psycho-social dynamics also in play

[meow]

Difficult everywhere. Boys have to put up with terrible teasing sometimes from school when it is known they dance - I have seen the anti-dance attitudes from many quarters for boys. It is usually assumed that to dance means you are gay - that is a complete myth. Oh, and 'hi'.

[MissBallroomBear]

Hey there Beno!

I think that from the moment of birth, we are told what we can and can not do. Society expects girls to be into Barbie dolls and makeup whilst boys are supposed to be into toy trucks and cars. If we were to raise boys around the concept of dancing then I'm sure that the number of male dancers would dramatically increase. As it is at the moment, we give children no choice but to accept this. They believe that this is who they have to be and mostly stick to the confines of the expectations of society.

Not saying that this is definitely why, it's just what I think. Btw, I'm firmly against society's expectations. I think everyone should be who they want to be!

[bordertangoman]

yeah I think I had one of those life-changing moments that I had no control over;
when I joined a junior school the 'music & movement' spotted my ability straight away then mistook someone else for me because I think she couldn't remember my name; she taught ballet classes after school; mostly girls but a few boys.

so somewhere in a parallel universe is a me who is a professional ballet/contemporary dancer

[alanw]

Hi Beno-dancer,

How to get boys interested in dance is indeed a problem that has been around for a long time, hence the reason in later life there are so many ladies dancing together at social dances whilst their husbands/boyfriends prop up the bar.

Unfortunately at the age they ideally need to start they are not really interested in the fact that the man who can dance will always be popular with the ladies, that fact only sinks in when they have left it too late.

At our dance school we had a young couple who used to dance junior for England, the boys younger brother was almost as good and was coming along nicely but in the end could not take the ribbing from his school mates and just gave up, a waste of a really good talent.

It takes a really strong personality to stand up to the ribbing and ridicule of his so-called mates, but the boy who can get through that will always be the winner in the end.

I agree with your comments about obesity in England and feel that dance is one of the finest exercise regimes you can get. I talk about ballroom/latin dancing but the same thing applies with any form of dance and I agree totally when you mention "confidence in performance, at home, school and socially"