Individual Ballet Experiences


Figure 1.--.

Some HBC readers have provided information on their or the experiences of others leaning ballet. We do not have very many entries here, but would be interested in adding experiences that readers may wish to contribute.

Australian Boy

I recently saw the movie "Billy Elliot" and could relate to it. At age 7 years I did ballet for about 6 months because my sister was doing it with her same aged cousin. She had no male partner so I was roped in to do it. Dad was not happy about it nor I either. I hated those tights too, but wore white and black shorts on hot days. The teacher said I had natural ability and should go very far if I changed my attitude toward. I was unlike Billy because he wanted to be a dancer because he was born and destined to do it. Looking back I think I might have made the wrong choice about not continouing staying in ballet and I would not say I regretted this choice. At 20 years of age I was watching a great hypnotist on stage and with a friend was invited on stage to be hypnotised'much later on stage the guy made me be a ballet dancer. I do not know why he chose me to be this particular item but I did really well and the guy told after the show that he believed I was a male ballet dancer. I said no I wasn't. A former girl schoolmate came up after the show with her little boy saying that I stunned her with some classic movements in ballet and asked the same question as the hypnotist had done and I was getting a tad annoyed too. Word got out that the old ballet teacher found out about this but she said she was not surprised by it all saying that had I not been a pigheaded little boy. I would have made to the top as a great and gifted dancer'she quipped too that maybe the hypnotist should have hypnotised me those 13 years earlier.

Canadian Boy

A Canadian reader writes, "I myself am not a dancer. I am however a strong supporter of boys who want to take ballet. As a kid I would have loved to have the chance to take dance but back in the mid 60's when I grew up "boys" and "ballet" were not synonymous. I remember a kid in grade school (grade 6) when I was 11 years old who was into ballet. Many of the other kids rode him like a rented donkey because of it. He was picked on, bullied, and generally considered to be a "sissy boy" in the school. One of the things I myself (and many of the other kids also noticed) was that this kid was a very good athlete in all of the school sports. He excelled in just about every sport from baseball to lacrosse to gymnastics and hockey. When you stop and analyze the aspects of ballet.....what does ballet teach ? It teaches you how to control your body! It enhances your skills in timing, co-ordination, balance, strength, stamina, movement, grace and so on. What type of skills do you need to be a good athlete ? Timing.....co-ordination....balance....strength.....grace.I think you get the picture."






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Created: October 21, 2002
Last updated: 3:27 AM 12/27/2004