What Issues Do Your Dancin’ Boys Struggle With?

Does your son have flexiblity issues?

Does he dislike being the only guy in an all girls ballet class?

Is he embarrassed to wear ballet tights?

Does he get teased inside or outside the dance studio?

Does he only want to take hip hop and tap classes?

Will he take dance class but not get up on stage to perform?

Do auditions give him the jitters?

Would he like to learn how to be a choreographer?

In an effort to address the issues of ALL dancin’ boys, not just the issues of my dancin’ boy, I’d love to hear what issues your boys struggle with. Please leave me some comments and over the course of the year, I’ll try to address them both through my own experience and via interviews with experts.

I look forward to your comments!

Whoo Hoo! Julian’s Into ABT and We’re Off to NYC Again!

Just a short note to say that Julian received notification late last week that he had been accepted again into the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive Program in New York City. Whoo hoo!

However, we were a bit upset at first to see that he had not been awarded a scholarship. Last year he received a 25 percent scholarship. My husband wondered what type of “message” they were trying to send to Julian by not offering him any “incentive.” So, he wrote a note to someone (who I won’t name) who had seen Julian at the audition and worked with him in New York.

Turns out, the lack of scholarship was an “omission.” An email came back today offering him a 50 percent scholarship! Double whoo hoo!! It’s not a “training scholarship” or anything like that, but we will take it! He was very happy, and that’s the message we wanted to hear. That sounds more like, “We want your son to attend our program, and we see some potential,” or “We see some improvement over last year.” It’s a bit more encouraging.

After all, the poor boy (well…he’s not poor; he’s having fun…it’s us going to the poor house especially since my husband got his two weeks’ notice today…) has been adding in ballet wherever he can. His program has about 6 or 7 hours of ballet a week if not more. He then adds in another hour and a half; he’s considering adding in another hour and a half as well. Plus, he has been rehearsing for YAGP (although we’ve put off competing until fall); that’s another 2-3 hours per week of ballet. Then, of course, there are all those rehearsals for Nutcracker in the fall and now for Alice in Wonderland. (He’s the White Rabbit.) So, he is fairly focused on ballet even if he isn’t in a full ballet program.

Anyway, all that said, he’s happy to have made it in again along with all the “ballet boys.” And I’m happy he did, too. We had a good time in NYC. I’ll try this time not to tear my ACL this year…especially since I’m just now at the tail end of my recovery period from the surgery.

Now comes the not-so-fun part, though…finding somewhere to stay in the city. Ugh. If anyone knows of a great apartment to sublet in the East Village, let me know.

Oh, by the way, the TDC Second Stage performance was awesome! Julian’s duet, choreographed by Mark Foehringer, was lovely and well danced; they’ll keep working on it, Mark says. Julian’s choreography also was well danced by his three dancers, and he got lots of compliments on it. He looked great in his hip hop and tap pieces. Too bad he doesn’t get much of that any more. (There will be time in NY…) And his other contemporary pieces looked great as well…one piece by Bret Easterling and another by a student choreographer.  Then, to top off the show, he was in a modern piece by Brian Fisher. That stopped the show. (Good thing it was at the end.) It was hilarious! Julian danced the whole thing with his hands in his pockets, including doing lifts and partnering. Pretty amazing stuff.

That turned into a long post!

Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Ballet

Catherine Tully

Recently I discovered a comment here on this blog from Catherine L. Tully. I felt tickled, because not only is Catherine a dance educator who has taught dance for over 22 years both in the United States and Japan, she currently serves as the Outside Representative for the National Dance Teachers Association in the UK as well.  Additionally, she is a writer and photographer with over over 36 years of experience and has written for Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit, Highland Dancer and youngARTS, among many other publications. Although I’m not a dance teacher, Catherine and I agree that we have a few things in common…such as the publications for which we write. We also both also have websites for writers and blogs about writing. (You can find out more about Catherine at www.4dancers.org.)

In any case, I asked Catherine if she’d like to write a guest blog post for me about the role of a male dancer. She gladly agreed. Here’s her post…

Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Ballet
By Catherine L. Tully

Much as I love Balanchine, I have come to a place in my life where I take issue with one of his more popular statements: “Ballet is Woman. In sports, it’s Mickey Mantle. In politics, it’s Eisenhower. In ballet, it’s woman. Women are lighter, more flexible. They move more beautifully. He is not the King, but she’s the Queen.”

Is that really true? I think not.

Now, let me back-pedal a bit. I do think that to Balanchine—and for his ballets, this was true. He found inspiration in women. But much as Mickey Mantle is no longer the representative for sports, and Eisenhower is not the first name that springs to mind when politics come up, men no longer take the back seat in ballet. And it’s about time that it is changing.

Although some choreographers still use men as a foil for women on stage, this is not true across the board. Men are being showcased more often in their own right. They are being allowed to explore different ways of moving and being on stage. When I was coming up in the ballet world, the man was your partner, and he got a chance to showcase his skills somewhere in the ballet, but other than that, his job was to make you look beautiful. It was such a narrow view of what men are capable of, and a disappointing one, really.

I have always hated gender roles in ballet. When I was dancing, I yearned to do some type of solo in technique shoes that wasn’t just “pretty.” I wanted to be able to show off the power and athleticism of ballet as a woman—to leap and to spin without being restricted by pointe shoes. I always wondered why women didn’t rebel against this narrow view of their talents. But now I realize that we, too, were stereotyped.

The very thing that elevated women to Balanchine’s coveted status also kept us from exploring our own possibilities. We were just as trapped as men under this system. We just didn’t realize it.

I have to again say that I love Balanchine. I do. His ballets are amazing and his choreography fascinates me. There is little doubt that there was pure genius operating there. Magic, really. Yet I love that there has been more exploration since then, more challenges to these long-held gender roles in dance. And I hope that it will continue.

My wish for both men and women in dance is that they have the freedom and the opportunity to explore both strength and softness. I hope the choreography will be dictated by the music and not some pre-conceived notion of what either sex is “supposed” to do. I see a future where we can take the stage as true partners, and bring out the best in one another—whatever that may be.

There will always be a place for Balanchine in my heart and in ballet, but rather than looking back, I choose instead to look forward. We are all capable of so much more.

Tech Week and ABT Summer Intensive Auditions this Week

Seems like we just got back from New York City, but Julian and his Dad went off to San Francisco today for his American Ballet Theatre summer intensive audition. I think he was a bit less nervous this year, but, of course, this year everything is riding on it. Last year, he did it on a whim thinking he was going off to Jewish camp. This year, he wants to go to ABT.

If he can, however, he might still audition for a few other summer intensives, but his schedule might not allow it.

This week will be intense. His pre-professional dance company, TDC, has its tech week before its Second Stage performance. Tickets are still available for one or two performances… (Go to www.teendancecompany.org to get tickets; performances are at the Mountain View, CA, Center for Performing Arts on Saturday and Sunday).

Julian will be in a number of pieces, including a duet. He claims he will be wearing little clothing. In the duet he wears a jumpsuit shorts outfit (red) that “shows everything,” he says. (In fact, the artistic director insisted Julian trade in his very comfortable M. Stevens dance belts for a padded Capezio one for the number so he wouldn’t “show” quite as much.)  In another piece he wears only booty shorts and in another booty shorts and a shirt. Another piece he is fully clothed in pants and a T-shirt; in this number, he actually dances the whole time with his hands in his pockets, even doing lifts this way. It’s quite unique! Anyway, his willingness to wear so little clothing tells you how he is growing up and becoming more comfortable with his body and showing off his muscles and general physique.

Julian’s sister, the budding costume designer, made the skirts for his piece of choreography, which was set on three girls. He got the inspiration from the suicide of a friend. He is also trying to turn it into a solo for YAGP, but he likes it better on the girls.

Speaking of choreography…we went to see Christopher Wheeldon’s company Morphoses in Palo Alto (at Stanford) on Friday night. We enjoyed most of the show. We weren’t so thrilled with his first piece, but we enjoyed his second one. There were several others by different choreographers, and we enjoyed most of those as well. I loved one that featured a box.  A woman danced in it briefly. There was a chat with Wheeldon afterwards. Julian was able to ask a question about how he choreographs.

My husband asked how he finds his dancers, who are very good. He said he finds them by working with different companies around the world. He also finds some via videos sent to him.

In any case, I’m very excited to see Julian’s first work performed. It’s a big step for him. He’s the youngest choreographer out of the student choreographers this year.

And by this time next week, hopefully we will have heard whether or not he has gotten accepted into the summer program at ABT…and if he’s gotten a scholarship or not. That surely would help make it a bit more affordable.

I’ll keep you posted on how things go.

How I Began Writing About Dance…

Recently I was asked to write a guest blog post  for 4 Dancers, a blog written by Catherine L. Tully. She is the Outside Europe representative for the National Dance Teachers Association in the UK. She has been involved with dance for over 35 years as an educator, writer, performer, photographer, choreographer and classroom instructor. Her articles appear in magazines such as Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit, youngARTS, Highland Dancer, and many other arts-related publications–some of the same places my articles appear. She is also one of the founders of Freelance-Zone.com, an award-winning blog for freelance writers. She asked me to write about how I got started as a dance writer. If you, too, would like to write about dance, you might want to read mypost. Or if you simply are interested in how I began writing about dance, you can do so by clicking here. Enjoy!

Watch for a post from Catherine very soon!

Standing on the White Line

A bit like the dancers who took part in the interviews that ended up becoming what we now know as the musical A Chorus Line, Julian got brutally honest the other night and told his dad and me that he was afraid he might burn out if he didn’t take a short break from only doing dance and take on something different. Seem that with his focus on school–imposed by parents who saw grades falling and grounded him–and on improving at dance, he feels all he spends his time on is dance and school. An accurate assessment of his time most recently. He has really had no social life over the last few months. So, the school musical, A Chorus Line, whose content speaks to him, comes as a very welcome break in his normal routine. It offers him something really fun and different to do and a chance to make new friends. Thus, it feeds his soul and gives him what he needs emotionally and socially.

Ah…our dancing boys are complex beings. How can a parent argue with a teary-eyed 15-year-old who wants so many things so badly, who yearns for acceptance and happiness and success? Isn’t this what we all want?

So, you guessed it, he will keep the role in A Chorus Line, drop out of the piece of choreography he auditioned for and agreed to be in at TDC, and face the consequences of these actions. He did manage to get the director of the musical to allow him to be away for YAGP the last weekend of February, which is the weekend just before tech rehearsals and the first performance when all the kids are supposed to be on call. This freed Julian up to have two extra weeks to rehearse for YAGP and to audition for another choreographer coming in to TDC. He doesn’t know if he’ll get into her piece, but it does mean he has a chance, since he already knows her rehearsal dates (this time they were offered beforehand) and is sure they don’t conflict with anything.

He realizes, however, that there is a possibility that he may be sitting in the audience come the Spring Concert and watching the other TDC members perform. (Most of the choreographers will come in between the beginning of February and end of March; the musical ends mid March.) He said he may end up regretting his decision at that moment (or before), but this is what he wants to do now. Okay…

He’ll write a letter of apology to the choreographer he’s bailing on…We figure that’s good protocol. Hopefully she’ll get that he’s just a kid–confused and all.

Anyway, I feel a bit relieved. He still has a ton of stuff coming up, but he seems much happier. That’s something. Sullen, depressed, angry teenage boys are not much fun to be around. (He even de-friended me on Facebook briefly!)

Onward to buy nude jazz shoes for the musical and white ballet shoes for his YAGP pax. I also have to figure out how to die white ones blue for his Bluebird variation costume… How is it that the boys just dance and the mom’s end up handling all the details? Thank goodness other people are getting the costumes themselves together.

Men in Toe Shoes and Choices to Make

Well, my last post caused a bit of a stir. (I guess I knew it might.) I’d like to just say that I have nothing against guys trying their feet in toe shoes. I understand that it can be a really great part of their training. Julian says he’d like to try one day. So, more power to all the male dancers out there who have or want to or will get up en pointe!

As for me “boycotting” Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, I really do have to pick and choose what dance programs and companies I go see. I can only spend so much money on dance. Just the other day I was telling my husband that we had to spend a little money (despite the fact that he’s about to lose his job) on taking my daughter to the theater; she wants to be a costume designer. We see a lot of dance… So, you see, we have to draw the line somewhere. I drew it at seeing the Trocks. I didn’t say other people shouldn’t go see them. By all means, go!

On a different note, poor Julian faces another one of those no-win decisions. He must choose between having a major role in the school production of A Chorus Line and being in several pieces of choreography with professional choreographers at TDC. Being in A Chorus Line means dropping out of piece he’s already in since two rehearsal dates fall during actual performances–not so great (having to tell a professional choreographer “thanks but no thanks”)–and possibly being in almost no performance pieces for the Spring Concert. It also means he gets to perform with his peers in the high school and show off his talents there, which he hasn’t had a chance to do (good socially, I suppose). Come mid-March, however, when the show is over, he may just be taking class and not rehearsing for anything… except the Los Gatos Ballet spring show, Alice in Wonderland, in which he’ll be the White Rabbit.

He thinks this musical will help him get to Broadway. He’s been told that if his dancing (ballet in particular) is great and he takes voice lessons, the world of dance–including Broadway–will be open to him. His response: “I want to do the musical.”

Ugh. I hate being a parent sometimes. Tonight his dad and I must ask him to look at his long-term and short-term goals and to lay out the pros and cons of his choices. We need to stay emotionally neutral (right…) and help him learn the fine life skill of making choices.

Will he make the right choice? What is the right choice? Can anyone really know? Will he regret his choice? (Should we be making the choice for him? Will we have to when push comes to shove?)

Someone want to take over my job for a little while?

Whatcha Think of Men in Tutus and Pointe Shoes?

I noticed the other day that a “different” ballet company would be performing in our area, and I really thought I might want to get some tickets to see a performance – especially since the company consisted of ALL MEN! However, I quickly changed my mind after watching a few videos online. The company is Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, and the men all wear tutus and toe shoes.

Yes, you heard me right. Without offending anyone, it’s a bit like a ballet company made up of…dare I say it?…transvestites! I understand the “Trocks” have been around for more than three decades and some call them “sophisticated.” They are funny…at least for a while…and I can see why they have been dubbed a “world-wide phenomenon,” but I’m not sure I could sit through several hours of watching them do parodies of classical ballets.

From what I can tell, when they aren’t trying to be funny by falling off their toe shoes and on their heavily made-up faces, they have great technical dance skill. So, I do give them that; they are great dancers. They also have impeccable comic timing.  It is humorous to see hairy-chested men dancing in tights, tulle, tutus, and toe shoes, and playing the roles of ballerinas with huge egos – at least for a short while.  They do make some amazing divas, that’s for sure! And they do a great job en pointe.

That said, I’m not exactly sure what they are trying to accomplish, and speaking from the perspective of the mother of a male dancer, I’m not sure they are helping any stereotypes about male dancers. In fact, I think they might be perpetuating them if not fostering them. How can they not? When you see a group of male ballet dancers parading around in women’s ballet wear and make up and dancing women’s roles, don’t you just have to wonder if they aren’t convincing people that all male dancers are gay (or closet transvestites) – not that many people need convincing?

We recently had an issue with a parent feeling concern about Julian being inappropriate with their young son, basically only because he is a male dancer. He’s friends with their daughter, who is a dancer. On the one hand, they think he and their daughter have a romantic attraction. On the other hand, they think Julian is gay and don’t want him hugging their son or rough housing with him.  (Go figure…) Anyway, if he wasn’t a dancer, do you think there would be any issue? I seriously doubt it.

So, while I get that the Trocks may seem funny to some, I really don’t think they are helping our dancin’ guys out much at all. Which is why you won’t see me spending my money on a ticket to their Northern California show.

A New Year, A New Website for Boys/Men Interested in Ballet

The blue moon on December 31, 2009, ushered in the new year. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press/newsone.com

Happy New Year! Can you believe it? With the blue moon shining over us–a unique event–we entered into a new decade.  I hope this will be a fantastic and unique year for all our dancin’ boys and young men.

I also hope you everyone is enjoying their “vacation from dance.” We actually didn’t have one.

First off, Julian’s school has midterms a week and a half after the Christmas break, so he’s been studying. In between, he’s been having Youth American Grand Prix rehearsals. He had one with his ballet teacher Marci Reiken at Los Gatos Ballet and several with the mother of his partner. They’ve actually progressed quite nicely, since their rehearsals without their “coach” are much longer. He’s also rehearsing “Bluebird” as a classical ballet solo. (Remember, he did this a his in-house solo recently). And he’s rehearsing his contemporary solo, which he is choreographing. It’s half done. On top of that, he’s thinking of creating a contemporary piece on point for his partner. Luckily, the school never called rehearsals for A Chorus Line.

I wanted to call you attention to a nice website for boys who want to do ballet. It’s a combination between blog and podcast called Ballet for Men -For Men Who Want to Dance. It has some good information written by a man and some videos. He discusses dance classes and clothing and offers resources. I’ll let you and your sons decide how valuable you find it.  It’s out there, though, and anything that supports guys dancing is great! He’s got a fan page on Facebook, so your kids might enjoy that.  Check it out.

Anyway, out New Year is off and running…two and half hours clocked in at the studio on Day 1 already and another rehearsal scheduled for Day 2.

When Will a Male Dancer Be Recognized as an Athlete?

Jockey Mike Smith, on Zenyatta, center, heads to the finish line to win the Breeders' Cup Classic horse race at Santa Anita Park, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, in Arcadia, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

I was so thrilled to hear that a race horse – a female race horse at that – had come in second in the Associated Press’ Female Athlete of the Year award. Yes, thoroughbred filly Zenyatta, winner of this years Breeder’s Cup Classic, came in second, edged out by tennis star Serena Williams. A horse has never won the title. 

What does this have to do with dance? Well, the fact that a horse – an animal – could be (in fact was) compared to human athletes got me to wondering…Have dancers ever been compared to human athletes? And what about our male dancers? Have they been compared to their counterparts who play other “sports”?

The other day at TDC, the kids performed in an in-house show. Julian was the only one to do a classical ballet solo. His was the shortest number as well. He danced Bluebird for all of about one minute and was just as winded as the girls who had danced for two or two and a half minutes. During his dance he did a number of  “male moves” (that I can’t spell!) that involved jumping and turning. In fact, the whole solo was jumps and turns. Several parents commented on the physical nature of the solo.

I’d like to see a football or basketball player or a track star try that routine. Or rather, and more to the point, I’d just like to see male dancers recognized for the physical nature of what they do.

I’m amazed at how much strength it takes to partner a ballerina let alone to do the jumps and turns the male dancers perform. We sit in the audience and ooh and aah at the male dancers (ballet, jazz, tap, whatever…) perform, because we know what they are doing isn’t easy. In fact, it’s damn hard.

So, if  a horse can be compared to human athletes…why not a male dancer to other human athletes?