How to Inspire Your Son to Dance

If you want to inspire your son to dance, take him to see other men dance. In particular, take him to see really great men dancing like real men.

We drove two and a half hours on Friday night to see Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance perform in Santa Rosa, CA. We ‘ve been waiting for this chance for a long time, and it was well worth five hours in the car for the performance itself, the chance to meet him (yes, we did) and for the inspiration it provided for Julian. Seeing Rasta, one of the most fabulous male dancers I’ve seen–not just for his ballet technique but all around, dance on that stage, and the other young men perform made Julian want to go home and work all the harder at his dancing. It also made him want to overcome his biggest weakness: lack of flexibility. He’s been doing extra stretching ever since!

This show really is phenomenal. If you live in New York, you can catch the “boys” at the Joyce Theater, a great venue, for three weeks in December. It’s filled with great dancing, humor and lots of testosterone. If you want to see guys doing guys stuff on the dance floor, this show is the one to see. (Actually, Julian said, “They’re doing all the stuff I never get to do.” Sad, but true.)

A little estrogen is throw in as well, as Rasta’s wife, Adrienne Canterna-Thomas dances with the boys and actually choreographed all but one number…a very funny piece where the boys partner with blow-up dolls. (Makes lifts very easy!) It’s amazing how she choreographs for the men and makes them dance like men. We spoke about it, and she said she also has them dress like men–mostly in jeans with no shirts! (Their last encore was the song “I’m Too Sexy for My Shirt…”)

On a serious note, it really is important to show our dancing boys great male dancers in an up-close and personal setting. Julian not only got to watch these great dancers (from the second row), he got to meet them. In fact, we met two of the boys in New York this summer at the NYCDA nationals. They are only a few years older than he is… He shook hands with Rasta, got to talk with  Kameron Bink, who was a SYTYCD top-10 finalist and also spoke with Rasta’s wife. It’s so important for boys to feel they are surrounded by other male dancers who are actually successful as professional dancers–who can be role models for them. That’s what Rasta is for Julian–a great and inspirational role mode. The other “boys” are, too, but he really aspires to dance like Rasta (and to one day be one of the “boys”).

By the way, these male dancers all had great technique–not surprisingly. Of course, Rasta studied at the Kirov Academy and made dance competition history with honors including the Special Jury Prize for the 1994 Paris International Dance Competition, the Gold Medal in the Junior Men’s Division from the 1996 Varna International Ballet Competition, and the Gold Medal in the Senior Men’s Division from the Jackson, MS USA-IBC. He has danced with the Le Jeune Ballet de France, the Hartford Ballet, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem, as well as being the first American to become a member of the Kirov Ballet in Russia. That said, I enjoyed watching all of their feet and ballet moves, which were beautifully done.

It’s worth mentioning that Adrienne shows off almost flawless (at least to my untrained eye) technique as well. She’s an utterly gorgeous dancer. While at first I found having a woman on stage a bit distracting, as my husband said, “Sometimes you need that estrogen to get the testosterone going.” She did add to the “story, and I’m sure she inspired many of the girls in the audience, and she was lovely to watch. Plus, the fact that she and her husband have made a life for themselves together on the road performing is inspiring as well. I know they have a child — a daughter, I think, and it’s nice for the (straight) boys to see that a dancing husband and wife can create a life and make a living performing together.

For a peak at the show, take a look at these videos:

A four-minute trailer (not to the correct music–The first half of the show is danced to Black Eyed Peas, Maria Callas, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Mathews Band, Journey, Coldplay Jacques Brel, and U2; the second half of the show is set exclusively to music by Queen, Prince and Michael Jackson.)

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Imagine this one with the correct music by Queen, Prince and Michael Jackson…

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Finally Found: Ballet Tights that Fit a Teenage Boy!

As a short breather to the Duncan Cooper series (and since I don’t have time right now to post another piece to that interview), I’d like to share that Julian has finally found some ballet tights that fit and that he loves. He says he can’t even tell he’s wearing them! So, I want to share the brand: MStevens Inc. of Los Angeles, CA, in case any other boys his age – 14 – have had trouble finding tights that fit. (He happens to have purchased the footed tights, Style 1099.)

This comes after a very long search for tights. In fact, he’s been wearing the same pair day in and day out. He has a second pair, but he doesn’t like them and won’t wear them. (One more purchase that was a waste of money.) We have found that Discount Dance Supply carries MStevens on line, and we are going to order two more pair. (This week they have some special shipping discounts.) Then he’ll be outfitted with ballet tights and dance shoes for ABT this summer. We still need to buy jazz pants, which he hates, some footless tights for hip hop (no sweats or shorts allowed at ABT), and a Pilates or yoga mat. Then he is set to go.

Today he had his year-end evaluation at dance; it wasn’t as intimidating as it was last time, and his Dad and I didn’t have any “stuff” up around the studio/company or anything like that. (We now are very happy with our/his studio choice.) So, it was pretty smooth sailing. They seem happy to have Julian, and he’s happy to be there. After a bit of a plateau in his dancing, he seems to be improving – or so they say. They also feel sure that going to NYC and dancing with a bunch of boys and under the tutelage of new and excellent teachers will be a superb experience for him. That made us all feel good about the decision, which is a bit of a hardship on our family, to say the least. He does need to work on a few things to avoid shin splints while at the intensive, such as landing and rolling through his whole foot and using his full plie on his jumps. And there was something or other about his hips or pelvis that related to his core. I know from writing about foot health twice now that that affects everything, the legs and feet in particular.

Speaking of feet, my story on how to keep a tap dancer’s feet healthy is now out in Dance Teachermagazine, for those of you who subscribe or want to purchase it. I guess the one about how to attract boys to a studio must have been in the April issue. They failed to send me that one, so I didn’t see it. Look for an article on three teen dance companies, including Julian’s company, Teen Dance Company of the Bay Area, in the July-August issue of Dance Spirit magazine.

Is Competition Good for Technique?

I’d like to write a short post based on a comment by Nichelle Strzepek at http://danceadvantage.net.   She read my last post on making boys dance slowly to learn the basics, and said the following:

“I have found it particularly difficult to impress the importance of learning to do things correctly with competitive dancers (again, my experience in this realm has been at recreational schools that compete). It seems for these students the eye is too often on the prize and not the work it takes to get there. I also think we live in an instant gratification culture and it becomes increasingly challenging to get kids to see the value in working slowly and methodically.”

In my experience, focus on competitions can, indeed, take away from technique. We saw that happen to Julian. Plus, for the last few years, Julian’s teachers have encouraged him not to compete. They said that the time spent learning dance routines took away from time spent perfecting technique. (Not to mention that the judging at competitions is not always so great, but that’s another whole subject.)

When Julian danced at Dance Attack Los Gatos, one year they would have a recital and the next year they would call their “technique year” and not have a recital. This allowed teachers to focus on technique all your long rather than stopping mid year to teach choreography and focus on all the stuff that goes into putting on a show. I thought this made a lot of sense, and Julian learned a lot more during those technique years.

I think he learned a lot about performing while he was on the Dance Attack Los Gatos performing/competition team, but after the second year we actually thought his technique had gone down hill. That’s when we pulled him out and enrolled him at Ballet San Jose School.

So, for whatever it’s worth, here’s my two cents worth: I think competitions have their place, especially for boys, who tend to really like competition. They also help kids learn how to perform. That said, I do think they can take away from technique, even though to win at a competion you really should have to have good technique in your performance. I think the focus gets put on the performance over the technique, though.

Now, in a perfect world. your son’s (or mine’s) performance or competiton routine  should require him — or rather his teacher should require him — to have perfect technique before he gets up on that stage before the judges.