Men in a Tights Situation – Lauren Perrett Explores the Stereotypes of Male Ballet Dancers Being GayTask 4: Feature ArticleMEN IN A TIGHTS SITUATIONLauren Perrett explores the stereotypes of male ballet dancers being gay.Football is for boys, ballet is for girls. If a guy does ballet; he is gay. The ways that all male ballet dancers have been constructed as effeminate and homosexual has gotten worse within our generation. Many high school boys who have told their friends in secret that they have been attending ballet classes as an after school activity lose those friends and end up leaving school. The school kids do not realise the blood, sweat and tears people put into ballet. It is more physically demanding than most sports and the hour’s dancers put into their training is more than an Olympic athlete, and that is a lot. They sacrifice so much. They basically skip childhood and work for their career from a young age and do not get a proper teen social life. Ballet dancers have a higher pain threshold than most sports people so when they are injured, they keep doing it because they love it more than anything in this world.
Female ballet dancers have their turns en Pointe and very technical but graceful dances, and male ballet dancers have their grand allegro and the hard work of partnering their partner. You may have heard the saying “Do you even lift?” which is implying that you do not do weights and do not have good strength and is used a lot towards people who are quite slender or flamboyant and it is also used to mock male ballet dancers. It is quite humorous when you think about what male dancers actually do and the amount of lifting they do. The thing is they are not lifting weights, they are lifting women which make them more of a man but people outside of the dance world will not realise this.
In the ballet world, the relationships within a dance school are inseparable. They are the people you have trained with from such a young age and they know and understand everything you go through, physically and mentally. No-one is judged and it is uncommon to be accused of being gay and weak because you all do the same thing. But ballet does have its very competitive aspects as well. Who can do the most pirouettes? Who can leap the highest? Who is the tallest? Skinniest? And so forth. This can either give the ballet environment a fun and exciting atmosphere and make everyone aim for higher goals or it can make things very negative. When it turns negative, issues can get out of hand. Because most people do not understand the ballet world completely, stereotypes can spiral out of control causing bigger
The ballet is a cultural practice, not a legal or ideological one. The traditional dancer is responsible for guiding the dancers which is part of his/her role for all time. If you are one of those who is struggling to adapt to a new dance style, this is a good opportunity for you to learn to work hard and be less shy.
The music of “The Magic Man” is beautiful even if you don’t have the ability to follow his movements on a regular basis. Don’t bother asking this question. This is not like music. There are things you need to master, like technique and technique, to be able to perform good dances.
When I heard “The Magic Man” did it give me pause and perhaps a new understanding of the dancer. He was working in the house and the music was wonderful, just like the actual music to a dance in an orchestra. I think many people who understand the way a music could work on the piano actually have much more confidence in the power it brings, but I will leave this for another story. I was about 18 when I found out it had come from a student called Mark. Mark started out doing a few of these dance school dance projects, but was cut because “The Magic Man” was just performing better than he needed to. With the training, Mark learned to adapt to his new style of dance and moved on, but after this, he was completely free from the traditional music. He left the dance circuit and was able just to relax. I have heard many people say to Mark they had always thought of the music as a “music” and no one ever actually realized the real music was all about the dancer. They felt great or at least it felt like they were there after all. I think there is one person who just got lost and just wanted to find the music and show it off to others or make them feel better. My research shows that people always love the way a music creates energy to their bodies and it brings out in people the power, energy the music possesses. We may be thinking that “No one would believe the magic man” without seeing how amazing it truly feels. We can also see how much of a power he has as a person, and how many people that love him. All of this can be taken more clearly and I’d like to hear from people who were told it was just dancing. The Magic Man has made the world one place that we can find the power that could bring us a lot. So please don’t forget to check out the music, especially when you are in competition in a dance school and you would rather be on top of people in suits with the magic man than off in a club and out onstage with the magic man.
Thanks to everyone who has come out during the last 10 weeks of competition, encouraged by this awesome challenge. The rest of the time I hope you have some good experiences too.
I’d also like to mention that I am looking for people who have been working with the best of this field. Any suggestions which they might consider a good one for this competition is greatly appreciated.
Bobby DeGroot is still recovering from the accident, but