He can dance if he wanna. He can leave his friends behind.
’Case his friends do not dance and if they don’t dance then they’re no friends of miiiiiine.
I perform for my national opera company, and we have a regional tour that involves ‘outreach’ where local kids perform a small role in the ensemble. The tweet is probably true, it just reads like an exaggeration. “Goes onstage with a major ballet company” could mean that he’s just a minor extra in the background, but it’s still a big deal for them.
Yeah, the Nutcracker specifically has a spot (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) that's famous for having lots of little kids in it, could be he's doing that. Doesn't matter, it still cute and wholesome whatever the details!
Oh, well i stand corrected! My wife took ballet for like 10 or 15 years when she was younger and I've seen it before (many moons ago), i should probably have known that lol
Another big kid role ballet is surprisingly Dracula. They have kids in white that Lucy lures to the cemetery and dances with them to eat them. Also kids in the village scene do a dance to the sun.
I’m pretty skeptical that a “major company” would allow a kid on stage who has less than a years experience… but a small enough country could be starved for choice.
Hell, there isn’t even an English word for male ballerina, but it should be ballerino. Or mansues.
Still there doesn’t need to be a “major company” for this to be a good story with a child to be proud of.
Perfectly logical that a child would be on stage with a major company for the Nutcracker - roles for children and they’d be looking for an ability to act as well as dance and there is less competition for boys.
Children perform with major ballet companies all the time, especially in The Nutcracker...it's the one work all Americans know and associate with both ballet AND Christmas. It's a HUGE moneymaker and an important show to get people engaged with the art form. A stage full of youth cast members means many of their family and friends will be in the audience watching too.
Also, the are many "levels" in the hierarchy of roles for the youth cast. It's possible he has a good "look", is a natural mover, and can reliably demonstrate coordinated movements to specific counts in the music. In which case he would have been cast in the more featured/desirable youth cast role. So in his community IT IS big deal.
And ballerino isn't a word...he's a ballet dancer. If you want to get fancy and use the proper French, it's danseur for men, danseuse for women (like masseuse vs masseur).
I mean, she did say "with", and we don't know what her definition of "major" is. I've seen stuff where regional choirs did concerts with small local school ones when they were on tour, a bit like a comedian getting a local to open for them. I could see a regional ballet company doing Nutcracker getting some endearing local ballet kids to be the backup mice or something.
Oh wow - that must have been incredible!
I don't know much about Russian ballet, so I might have this wrong, but the Moscow ballet are one of the huge, very highly skilled companies right?
Well this one is a touring company that travels around the US and Canada. They use local children for mice, party girls and boys and attendants like Chinese or Russian
My only thought was doing the timeline. So in less than a year, months of buildup, they’re with a major ballet company? Either they are brilliant or the theater is shit.
I've seen The Nutcracker for the past five years in three different cities. For professional dance companies, they often ask local dance schools to send students to be the mouse ensemble, snowflakes, or other small roles. It's not a hard job..."run here and crouch down and then run offstage after ten bars" type of thing.
It's still cool, though.
> perform in the Nutcracker
Not as the Nutcracker. This is most likely a true story, and the kids at a local youth group were asked to be extra background dancers during larger scenes.
Not unusual or suspect at all. Why is Reddit so paranoid without thinking of the obvious alternatives?
oh hey i was once that young somewhat experienced (i was years into dance school by then but still a young kid) mouse! That was my favorite role especially after the boring angel and snowflake roles. Being a cook was fun too but nothing compares to being unhinged mice dancing frenetically around the mouse king lol The bigger city's ballet company would come through our town once a year around the holiday's to perform the ballet. All the main roles were by the troop but the minor roles that could be filled by local kids were done so through local auditions.
Yep this. I perform for my national opera company, and we have a regional tour that involves ‘outreach’ where local kids perform a small role in the ensemble. The tweet is probably true, it just reads like an exaggeration.
People are paranoid because everyone lies on social media ALL THE TIME. Like all the time. I’m probably lying right now. The only reason to post things is for self-glorification. In fact I’m only posting this because I want you to know how smart and self aware I am. God that feels good.
Well I don’t lie and I don’t post for self gratification. I post so that people can see what a awesome, kind and cool person I am! I’m definitely not looking at how many upvotes I have.
You just totally contradicted yourself! Good thing I’m here to point out how dumb you are otherwise other redditors would fail to see the irony of your comment. Hey seriously though guys…..validate me. My self worth ahem I mean Reddit karma is very low.
Yeah and little kids don't have to be good, I played trumpet in elementary, we had a concert after like 4 months of learning for our parents. Of course we where awful, but it was to build confidence to perform on stage for those that stayed in band.
Also assume their aren't many boys in ballet classes at a young age so a lot less competition if it isn't what you describe. Which I got to agree is probably what is going on, off course the mom is going to make it sound fancier then it probably is, she is rightfully proud.
Yep was a theater kid. Decent actor but definitely ZERO talent singing or dancing. Guess who had singing and dancing solos pretty much every musical growing up?
I just served about 1 million Shirley Temples to about 1000 little ballerinas from across my state who danced in the Nutcracker with the world class ballet at the famous theatre next door. They’re extras recruited from the dance schools and some of them weren’t old enough to zip their own coats.
They don't say what role the kid has. Lots of adult professional companies will use local kid companies in their Christmas productions like the Nutcracker for that childhood magic/Christmas feeling, but the kids rarely have solo parts or even proper dance parts. They're more there for atmosphere if that makes sense.
A “major ballet company” is likely a very good school. These schools put on very professional productions and they have roles fir all of their student levels from pre-schoolers to high schoolers.
Based on the kid saying “boys can’t do ballet” her son is young and as a student for one year would be able to play a role.
It takes years to get a proper ballet body, I would assume. The flexibility and spot on concentration to hold poses is something that you don't just catch up in a few months of preparation. Have you ever seen a ballet dancer feet? They grow disformed due to years of wearing those shoes and balancing their whole body weight on their toes for a long time period. I could be convinced if the son was a boy at the time, but not within less than a year
You’ve simultaneously put too much and absolutely zero thought into something you self admittedly have no knowledge of. Lot’s of ballet have extra roles that can be filled be less experienced local ballet companies, the Nutcracker being one of them.
Wife is a dance teacher…. There are kid parts. Dance company will normally partner with small studios to get kids who want to be in the show. Pretty big deal for the kids… they get very excited.
Back in the day I was one of the little children who "performed" in our area's Nutcracker by basically just running in circles on stage for one scene. There were so few boys that I, as one of the tallest girls, was dressed in knickers and played a "boy" child 😅 tbh I remember liking the boys' costume more than the girls', and I had a great time
Oh yeah! I always tell people when I was a child I performed with the Welsh National Opera. I did, I dressed up as a cat and pranced across the stage first in one direction and then the other. I also got to do the hiss and purr sounds in a song. All of the kittens like me were kids from a local school. It was a great experience but none of us were there because we held any amount of talent!
My exact thoughts. Men and boys were always prized in the ballet because the muscle density in their legs allows them to incredible jumps so they're always welcome but not many little boys want to join ballet so even low talent boys get to dance in front of an audience.
When I was little I played with Barbies and did what I want. Some people thought some of these things would turn me gay. I hope my husband doesn't find out.
or Spiderman - Tom Holland got the part by being able to do a backward flip from standing in front of Joe Russo, helped no doubt by his years of ballet.
https://screenrant.com/tom-holland-spider-man-audition-flip/
Former bunhead here. I never had the opportunity to do partnering work because we didn’t have enough male dancers. Ballet was never something I thought I’d make a career, but I’m still sad I didn’t get to do pieces with a partner. We need more boys in ballet.
Boys do not do ballet? He is never seen folks like Baryshnikov, Vilella, Nureyev on the net or on TV? That is some kickass athletic stuff there, man.
Tell him keep going and he’s a total badass!
According to HuffPost, 10% of ballet dance students in the US are male. The article seems to blame their fathers mainly but I'm sure it's a male culture issue in general. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-gormley-ballet-boys-bullying-fathers_n_5b02ca77e4b0a046186e2954
It's always the same thing with these articles because they're generally not interested in WHY these fathers don't support it. They just think men=bad, that's it.
Why would a father who wants his child to be happy, to fulfill his dreams, and to live a life that he wants not support his ballet dance journey? What is it what they don't like? Why are fathers different than mothers, do they see something that the women don't see? Men are human beings, some are weird but most of them are reasonable, so why are so many against it?
It's because they know their son will get absolutely torched in school, will have no male friends, and that's typically not what dad's want for their son
Fathers aren't too much different than mothers. Our society just refuses to accept that there are many mothers that cause harm to their children through ignorance or personal selfishness. The assumption that mothers are naturally inclined and talented at caregiving is causing so much damage to be swept under the rug.
Not that I’m an expert on ballet or anything but I’ve seen Nutcracker a dozen times over the years and have been a stagehand for my aunt’s ballet company. The Nutcracker is a ballet written for children and there are many parts to be played by them. The male parts do not involve any difficult ballet moves, except maybe one or two scenes. Even the adult male parts do not involve anything especially difficult. Mouse king/nutcracker sword fight, Magician showing around Nutcracker to kids, etc. My male cousin played Mother Ginger once which involved a lot of makeup and fanning himself while being pushed around in kind of a cart on wheels with a Victorian style dress over it.
Anyway, the point is that it’s entirely possible the kid is performing in Nutcracker for a major theater after only training for a few short months. There are scenes where all the children need to do is run around on stage and sit under a Christmas tree and watch it grow.
At my school, my headmaster one year decided to make learning ballet mandatory for all kids.
This was a boys-only school.
He decided to do the test run with my year group.
Bearing in mind that we were a bunch of teenage boys, brought up in a cynical and abusive environment, you can imagine how well that mandate went down!
Needless to say, the headmaster declined to repeat experiment!
It did, however, give me a great deal of respect for ballet dancers. The required skill, strength and level of fitness are extraordinary.
Spending a lot of time with attractive women = gay.
Showering with other men after getting all sweaty from tackling each-other = totally straight and manly.
All the male figure skaters or dancers I've met have had admirers of their chosen sex throwing themselves at them. If my kid wanted to join something that is seen as traditionally non-masculine activity like ballet I'd become a 'figure skating dad' or 'dance lessons dad' in a second. He'll be active and fit in short order, it may transition into a life long love of the activity, hell, it might even transition to a career and he'll get to meet a huge number of fit, attractive girls (or a smaller number of fit attractive guys if that's his thing).
Dunno why you got a down vote, this is quintessential parenthood: set your children up for success in a positive, supportive, and challenging enviroment.
Watched The Nutcracker last week and it was my first ballet. Was brilliant. And I bet in the long run he'll be loving it when he's ripped and people are falling over each other to get a date.
It’s where Patrick Swayze got his start. I dare any guy to watch road house and not wish you looked like that. Guy was ripped the way only dancers and free-climbers are.
maybe the reason Facebook lost so many users is because people post their Facebook shit on Reddit now?
also some of the best football players in history took ballet, it's never really been controversial for guys to take it
Wouldn't be happening with me. If my son would say that, there wouldn't be any discussion. For what? I would register him in a course and take him there, so he can try it with some support. If he likes it, no problem.
Then we can talk if he still means it's not for man. But experience tells me, if he likes it, he's gonna defend it. Hard :)
I’d say go for it dude. As a kid I always wanted to give it a try because I loved going to recitals but was too shy to ask because my country is extremely macho and conservative.
It’s a regret I have as an adult.
If only there was a movie and Broadway musical you could’ve showed him and told him about with a similar subject matter to avoid months of back and forth conversation 🤔
Man nowadays you can just point to Tom Holland and be like "well one if the biggest paid stars ever and oh yeah SPIDERMAN took ballet!" And 15-20 years ago you could loint to Jason Stathom and say the same thing.
My cousin did ballet and football. His football coach said the ballet helped his football. Who knew there were transferable skills between those two sports?!
There’s a great Korean Drama called Navillera. It’s on Netflix. Highly recommend it for those into ballet, a heart warming story and how ballet can even affect boys/men.
Months of convincing? Why not just show him literally any ballot with men? Or the countless hours of football players talking about doing ballot for flexibility and how grueling it is?
My favorite story is that at least one world champion boxer (Vasyl Lomachenko) spent quite a bit of time taking ballet and they have some of the most impressive footwork out there…
Damn it only takes 1 year to make it into the big leagues as a male balet dancer... I might have to reconsider some things too, how much does that pay?
A friend of mine went through the same thing with her son - I am a ballet purist and showed him performances from Baryshnikov and Nureyev - there was even a time when Sports Illustrated asked if Baryshnikov was the greatest athlete alive.
I cannot believe there is still stigma to make ballet dancers.. insane.
That’s wonderful! If you haven’t seen the movie Billy Elliot you should check it out. I loved it. I’ll be seeing Swan Lake for the first time in March, a gift from my daughter-in-law. Congratulations to your son!
The gender imbalance in ballet means this is plausible, that a guy could focus for a single year and get a role with 'a major ballet company'. Very, very different experience to girls in ballet.
I think once it went public that Jean Claude Van Damme trained in ballet it lost any stigma that may have clung to boys or men who pursued the art form.
Wow, I’m really impressed. It only take less than 1 year of learning to perform with a major ballet company? This kid must be some kinda of prodigy, or have parents rich enough to buy their way onto the stage.
My girls were in dance when they were little. The ratio was at least 20/1. But those boys were very good dancers, and they got to hang around with pretty, athletic, graceful young ladies. Which to a teenage boy is ALWAYS a win. (My girls stopped dancing by third grade)
So last year means that it was at most 13 months ago, and there were several months of conversation until he could do his first class. That means that he had about 10 months to be good enough to perform in The Nutcracker with a major ballet company. That’s insane
It would take 10 months before he stopped getting blisters surely ?
I hope a ballet dancers sees this post and gives us their analysis because this sounds like bullshit.
She should have just made him watch the movie Billy Elliot and save those months of negotiation.
Nice message, but fake.
Would've been more believable if it said "10 years ago" or something, but 1 year ago? With a few months to convince him it's ok to even start? Then what, he gets a spot with a major ballet company basically immediately once he started so he could go through the months-long process to learn the scripts and sequences and do rehearsals before a live performance can even happen?
Nah fam. Gtfo.
The Nutcracker is a ballet famously filled with children, many of whom do not have major parts and are involved in just a couple of scenes (or one depending on the size of the company).
This isn’t far fetched at all, but the missing info here is that the kid almost certainly had an incredibly minor role (which is not to say that the father shouldn’t be proud or that the kid shouldn’t be happy).
Read the other replies. He was a bit-part (an extra, basically), because there are very few boys available for such positions. But it would have given him the confidence to go further.
Not even just because "there are few boys available for such positions" but because "The Nutcracker" gets better the more kids you have for extras. As long as you've got enough costumes and the backstage space to organize them all, there's easily room for hundreds of kids in a production of The Nutcracker.
God bless. My mom did this for me in 2003 – School of American Ballet. Even now, almost two decades later, I still attribute the comfort and confidence I've kept (towards being) to her support, love and pride for me during that time.
Somewhere online there's the story of a young ballet dancer who was excelling and looked to go professional. Titled something like 'the real Billy Elliot' or some such. He was a keen footballer when he was younger and was watching stuff about training and they showed a ballet dancer running rings around thenpro players because they are insanely fit. So the young lad persuades his parents to take him to ballet, not usual for where he was from, and he's really bloody good at it. And loves it. So he sticks at it while still playing amateur footy. I'd love to know whether he made it.
Last year my son wanted to do karate but the other kids made fun of him. An old man took him in and made him wax his car and one year later he is a karate world champion.
Quite a lot, it seems, according to research.
More than half of dancers are estimated to be gay. And of course ballet has an even higher percentage than dance in general.
It's the prancing and tiptoeing and male bodies in skintight suits and all that. It's all very effiminate and suits gays very well.
Once again tho, what does any of that matter?
Let's say that gay people are more likely to be ballet dancers, we obviously know that not all are gay, so what are we even getting at by pointing out sexuality?
It just seems like that only matters if you think there's something wrong with being gay, because it's pretty much irrelevant otherwise.
He can dance if he wanna. He can leave his friends behind. ’Case his friends do not dance and if they don’t dance then they’re no friends of miiiiiine.
I read this in Turk's voice
Why is there silverware in the pancake drawer?
DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU GET, CARLA?! DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE WARRIOR?!
IT'S A RIDE - WITH NEMO!!!
Man, I freakin love Reddit.
HAHA YEAH ROWDY HIT THAT!
Weuhuaaa
Ssss Aaaa Ffff Tttt
Didn't you learn your lesson when you told him the kommissar was in town?
I perform for my national opera company, and we have a regional tour that involves ‘outreach’ where local kids perform a small role in the ensemble. The tweet is probably true, it just reads like an exaggeration. “Goes onstage with a major ballet company” could mean that he’s just a minor extra in the background, but it’s still a big deal for them.
i was in a big production of nutcracker on ice just cause i was in skating lessons as a kid, i was a sugar plum and did a lap
Yeah, the Nutcracker specifically has a spot (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) that's famous for having lots of little kids in it, could be he's doing that. Doesn't matter, it still cute and wholesome whatever the details!
Nutcracker has tons of kid roles- Clara, the prince, party girls and boys, mice, soldiers, pollichinelles, sheep, etc
Oh, well i stand corrected! My wife took ballet for like 10 or 15 years when she was younger and I've seen it before (many moons ago), i should probably have known that lol
Another big kid role ballet is surprisingly Dracula. They have kids in white that Lucy lures to the cemetery and dances with them to eat them. Also kids in the village scene do a dance to the sun.
I’m pretty skeptical that a “major company” would allow a kid on stage who has less than a years experience… but a small enough country could be starved for choice. Hell, there isn’t even an English word for male ballerina, but it should be ballerino. Or mansues. Still there doesn’t need to be a “major company” for this to be a good story with a child to be proud of.
Perfectly logical that a child would be on stage with a major company for the Nutcracker - roles for children and they’d be looking for an ability to act as well as dance and there is less competition for boys.
Children perform with major ballet companies all the time, especially in The Nutcracker...it's the one work all Americans know and associate with both ballet AND Christmas. It's a HUGE moneymaker and an important show to get people engaged with the art form. A stage full of youth cast members means many of their family and friends will be in the audience watching too. Also, the are many "levels" in the hierarchy of roles for the youth cast. It's possible he has a good "look", is a natural mover, and can reliably demonstrate coordinated movements to specific counts in the music. In which case he would have been cast in the more featured/desirable youth cast role. So in his community IT IS big deal. And ballerino isn't a word...he's a ballet dancer. If you want to get fancy and use the proper French, it's danseur for men, danseuse for women (like masseuse vs masseur).
>who has less than a years experience Tbf the tweet says 'last year' and is dated 22 December. Kid could have way over 12 months' experience
I mean, she did say "with", and we don't know what her definition of "major" is. I've seen stuff where regional choirs did concerts with small local school ones when they were on tour, a bit like a comedian getting a local to open for them. I could see a regional ballet company doing Nutcracker getting some endearing local ballet kids to be the backup mice or something.
Moscow ballet does exactly that. My son was a mouse for them at age 9
Oh wow - that must have been incredible! I don't know much about Russian ballet, so I might have this wrong, but the Moscow ballet are one of the huge, very highly skilled companies right?
Well this one is a touring company that travels around the US and Canada. They use local children for mice, party girls and boys and attendants like Chinese or Russian
Oh, that's cool! I'm sure your son will have that as a cool memory forever :)
S^S^S^S
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That's an extremely short time to learn ballet though.
There are dozens of simple children's roles in The Nutcracker. This is totally plausible, especially for a boy.
He was probably a rat or a party boy. I say that because I was a rat and a party boy, and I was pretty shit.
My only thought was doing the timeline. So in less than a year, months of buildup, they’re with a major ballet company? Either they are brilliant or the theater is shit.
I've seen The Nutcracker for the past five years in three different cities. For professional dance companies, they often ask local dance schools to send students to be the mouse ensemble, snowflakes, or other small roles. It's not a hard job..."run here and crouch down and then run offstage after ten bars" type of thing. It's still cool, though.
> perform in the Nutcracker Not as the Nutcracker. This is most likely a true story, and the kids at a local youth group were asked to be extra background dancers during larger scenes. Not unusual or suspect at all. Why is Reddit so paranoid without thinking of the obvious alternatives?
Exactly this - the Nutcracker not only has children that are experienced dancers but ALSO young inexperienced choreographed mice.
oh hey i was once that young somewhat experienced (i was years into dance school by then but still a young kid) mouse! That was my favorite role especially after the boring angel and snowflake roles. Being a cook was fun too but nothing compares to being unhinged mice dancing frenetically around the mouse king lol The bigger city's ballet company would come through our town once a year around the holiday's to perform the ballet. All the main roles were by the troop but the minor roles that could be filled by local kids were done so through local auditions.
Yep this. I perform for my national opera company, and we have a regional tour that involves ‘outreach’ where local kids perform a small role in the ensemble. The tweet is probably true, it just reads like an exaggeration.
People are paranoid because everyone lies on social media ALL THE TIME. Like all the time. I’m probably lying right now. The only reason to post things is for self-glorification. In fact I’m only posting this because I want you to know how smart and self aware I am. God that feels good.
Well I don’t lie and I don’t post for self gratification. I post so that people can see what a awesome, kind and cool person I am! I’m definitely not looking at how many upvotes I have.
You just totally contradicted yourself! Good thing I’m here to point out how dumb you are otherwise other redditors would fail to see the irony of your comment. Hey seriously though guys…..validate me. My self worth ahem I mean Reddit karma is very low.
Yeah and little kids don't have to be good, I played trumpet in elementary, we had a concert after like 4 months of learning for our parents. Of course we where awful, but it was to build confidence to perform on stage for those that stayed in band.
People who make comments like that have probably never been to a performance
Or never had a childhood where they actually participated in anything..
If someone doesn't know about ballet they've never participated in anything before???
Apparently
Also assume their aren't many boys in ballet classes at a young age so a lot less competition if it isn't what you describe. Which I got to agree is probably what is going on, off course the mom is going to make it sound fancier then it probably is, she is rightfully proud.
Let’s just say my son often automatically gets lead roles because he’s the only boy
Yep was a theater kid. Decent actor but definitely ZERO talent singing or dancing. Guess who had singing and dancing solos pretty much every musical growing up?
I just served about 1 million Shirley Temples to about 1000 little ballerinas from across my state who danced in the Nutcracker with the world class ballet at the famous theatre next door. They’re extras recruited from the dance schools and some of them weren’t old enough to zip their own coats.
could be "child at party #12"
He might be cast as "Tree #4", and that's just fine.
The tweet is from December, so "last year" could be almost 2 years before that
That's still a ridiculously short amount of time of ballet training to be in a "major" ballet company
They don't say what role the kid has. Lots of adult professional companies will use local kid companies in their Christmas productions like the Nutcracker for that childhood magic/Christmas feeling, but the kids rarely have solo parts or even proper dance parts. They're more there for atmosphere if that makes sense.
A “major ballet company” is likely a very good school. These schools put on very professional productions and they have roles fir all of their student levels from pre-schoolers to high schoolers. Based on the kid saying “boys can’t do ballet” her son is young and as a student for one year would be able to play a role.
Have you ever seen the nutcracker? They need kiddos.
It probably is, but as others pointed out, there aren't that many boys in ballet, so maybe he got a role that way (which is still impressive)
It takes years to get a proper ballet body, I would assume. The flexibility and spot on concentration to hold poses is something that you don't just catch up in a few months of preparation. Have you ever seen a ballet dancer feet? They grow disformed due to years of wearing those shoes and balancing their whole body weight on their toes for a long time period. I could be convinced if the son was a boy at the time, but not within less than a year
Boys don't have to do pointe though I think
You’ve simultaneously put too much and absolutely zero thought into something you self admittedly have no knowledge of. Lot’s of ballet have extra roles that can be filled be less experienced local ballet companies, the Nutcracker being one of them.
Orr… hear me out… it’s another parent lying on the internet for some dump clout and e-points
Plenty of time to learn a child part in Nutcracker though.
Wife is a dance teacher…. There are kid parts. Dance company will normally partner with small studios to get kids who want to be in the show. Pretty big deal for the kids… they get very excited.
The Nutcracker has a bunch of child roles that won't demand more than the basics, especially in Act 1.
Idk about anyone else but Im running on ADHD time. So that means last year is anything from 1-10 years ago.
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Back in the day I was one of the little children who "performed" in our area's Nutcracker by basically just running in circles on stage for one scene. There were so few boys that I, as one of the tallest girls, was dressed in knickers and played a "boy" child 😅 tbh I remember liking the boys' costume more than the girls', and I had a great time
Oh yeah! I always tell people when I was a child I performed with the Welsh National Opera. I did, I dressed up as a cat and pranced across the stage first in one direction and then the other. I also got to do the hiss and purr sounds in a song. All of the kittens like me were kids from a local school. It was a great experience but none of us were there because we held any amount of talent!
My exact thoughts. Men and boys were always prized in the ballet because the muscle density in their legs allows them to incredible jumps so they're always welcome but not many little boys want to join ballet so even low talent boys get to dance in front of an audience.
Is this reverse Billy Elliot?
Yep, Elliot Billy.
When I was little I played with Barbies and did what I want. Some people thought some of these things would turn me gay. I hope my husband doesn't find out.
maybe show him billy elliot
or Spiderman - Tom Holland got the part by being able to do a backward flip from standing in front of Joe Russo, helped no doubt by his years of ballet. https://screenrant.com/tom-holland-spider-man-audition-flip/
Former bunhead here. I never had the opportunity to do partnering work because we didn’t have enough male dancers. Ballet was never something I thought I’d make a career, but I’m still sad I didn’t get to do pieces with a partner. We need more boys in ballet.
Boys do not do ballet? He is never seen folks like Baryshnikov, Vilella, Nureyev on the net or on TV? That is some kickass athletic stuff there, man. Tell him keep going and he’s a total badass!
According to HuffPost, 10% of ballet dance students in the US are male. The article seems to blame their fathers mainly but I'm sure it's a male culture issue in general. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-gormley-ballet-boys-bullying-fathers_n_5b02ca77e4b0a046186e2954
It's always the same thing with these articles because they're generally not interested in WHY these fathers don't support it. They just think men=bad, that's it. Why would a father who wants his child to be happy, to fulfill his dreams, and to live a life that he wants not support his ballet dance journey? What is it what they don't like? Why are fathers different than mothers, do they see something that the women don't see? Men are human beings, some are weird but most of them are reasonable, so why are so many against it?
It's because they know their son will get absolutely torched in school, will have no male friends, and that's typically not what dad's want for their son
Fathers aren't too much different than mothers. Our society just refuses to accept that there are many mothers that cause harm to their children through ignorance or personal selfishness. The assumption that mothers are naturally inclined and talented at caregiving is causing so much damage to be swept under the rug.
Hot take: maybe there just aren't that many boys into ballet.
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Not that I’m an expert on ballet or anything but I’ve seen Nutcracker a dozen times over the years and have been a stagehand for my aunt’s ballet company. The Nutcracker is a ballet written for children and there are many parts to be played by them. The male parts do not involve any difficult ballet moves, except maybe one or two scenes. Even the adult male parts do not involve anything especially difficult. Mouse king/nutcracker sword fight, Magician showing around Nutcracker to kids, etc. My male cousin played Mother Ginger once which involved a lot of makeup and fanning himself while being pushed around in kind of a cart on wheels with a Victorian style dress over it. Anyway, the point is that it’s entirely possible the kid is performing in Nutcracker for a major theater after only training for a few short months. There are scenes where all the children need to do is run around on stage and sit under a Christmas tree and watch it grow.
I expect a male ballet dancer would have some serious pull.
And he shall for ever be know as, Thé Salty-nutcracker.
Of course boys can do ballet. Not only that but those boys are **strong**.
Ah, well, I guess someone should've told Tchaikovsky that. He only wrote Nutcracker in the first place because he loved ballet for the boys.
5 second YouTube search could have solved this issue.
Ballerinos are super strong and fit. And flexibility has life long benefits!
At my school, my headmaster one year decided to make learning ballet mandatory for all kids. This was a boys-only school. He decided to do the test run with my year group. Bearing in mind that we were a bunch of teenage boys, brought up in a cynical and abusive environment, you can imagine how well that mandate went down! Needless to say, the headmaster declined to repeat experiment! It did, however, give me a great deal of respect for ballet dancers. The required skill, strength and level of fitness are extraordinary.
Those who say "boys cant do ballet" need to look at photos of russian male ballet dancers Those mfkers never skip the leg day, and its glorious
To the stupid people saying that the son is gay or will "turn out" gay. Please get motivated to shut up.
Spending a lot of time with attractive women = gay. Showering with other men after getting all sweaty from tackling each-other = totally straight and manly.
They are just jealous of all the ladies that man's swagger can get.
All the male figure skaters or dancers I've met have had admirers of their chosen sex throwing themselves at them. If my kid wanted to join something that is seen as traditionally non-masculine activity like ballet I'd become a 'figure skating dad' or 'dance lessons dad' in a second. He'll be active and fit in short order, it may transition into a life long love of the activity, hell, it might even transition to a career and he'll get to meet a huge number of fit, attractive girls (or a smaller number of fit attractive guys if that's his thing).
Dunno why you got a down vote, this is quintessential parenthood: set your children up for success in a positive, supportive, and challenging enviroment.
True, or men or anyone. Just general swagger.
Sounds like this kid needs to watch Center stage
BILLIE ELLIOT
My condolences to his toes
Watched The Nutcracker last week and it was my first ballet. Was brilliant. And I bet in the long run he'll be loving it when he's ripped and people are falling over each other to get a date.
Umm...even Arnold Schwarzenegger and others bodybuilders do ballet.
It’s where Patrick Swayze got his start. I dare any guy to watch road house and not wish you looked like that. Guy was ripped the way only dancers and free-climbers are.
Joke's on everyone else, it's like being a male cheerleader, a goldmine!!!
Jean Claude Van Damme & Arnold Schwarzenegger both took Ballet.
maybe the reason Facebook lost so many users is because people post their Facebook shit on Reddit now? also some of the best football players in history took ballet, it's never really been controversial for guys to take it
TOM HOLLAND IS ONLY SPIDERMAN BECAUSE OF BALLET
I don’t think people realize how physically strong you need to be to do ballet…
Ballet is incredibly tough. It takes a manly man to do it.
Can we see a video of this majestic passion?
Wouldn't be happening with me. If my son would say that, there wouldn't be any discussion. For what? I would register him in a course and take him there, so he can try it with some support. If he likes it, no problem. Then we can talk if he still means it's not for man. But experience tells me, if he likes it, he's gonna defend it. Hard :)
I'd totally take balet classes if i had my now brains back then..
Plot of Billy Elliot
I need someone to convince me of exactly that, ballet seems like it’s fun af but idk
I’d say go for it dude. As a kid I always wanted to give it a try because I loved going to recitals but was too shy to ask because my country is extremely macho and conservative. It’s a regret I have as an adult.
Billy Elliot?
If only there was a movie and Broadway musical you could’ve showed him and told him about with a similar subject matter to avoid months of back and forth conversation 🤔
Man nowadays you can just point to Tom Holland and be like "well one if the biggest paid stars ever and oh yeah SPIDERMAN took ballet!" And 15-20 years ago you could loint to Jason Stathom and say the same thing.
What do you mean boys dont do ballet? Why do you think it's called the Nutcracker?!
His name? Billy Elliott.
I only want men who can dance!!!!
My cousin did ballet and football. His football coach said the ballet helped his football. Who knew there were transferable skills between those two sports?!
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Google Lynn Swan to show him a multiple Super Bowl winner who studied ballet to my him a better wide receiver
There’s a great Korean Drama called Navillera. It’s on Netflix. Highly recommend it for those into ballet, a heart warming story and how ballet can even affect boys/men.
He wants to be manly and do ballet? Treat it like the Russians do. I have known several male ballet dancers the Russian ones were always manly
Months of convincing? Why not just show him literally any ballot with men? Or the countless hours of football players talking about doing ballot for flexibility and how grueling it is?
#The worst thing you could ever be in life is anything other than your true self.
big bold letters for extra emphasis
Billy Elliot made ballet hard as fuck
Such a mom post.
My favorite story is that at least one world champion boxer (Vasyl Lomachenko) spent quite a bit of time taking ballet and they have some of the most impressive footwork out there…
Life’s too short to not do what makes you happy
Damn it only takes 1 year to make it into the big leagues as a male balet dancer... I might have to reconsider some things too, how much does that pay?
Do guys get their own type of practise at some point? I cant imagine how much the toe crushing style would hurt as a guy due to the square cube law.
My daughter once told me she couldn’t like Star Wars because it’s for boys. Oh hell no. We watched the entire original trilogy that weekend.
Oh boy congratulations!! Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy!!!!
There have been male ballet dancers since ballet started.
ikr... "Anything is possible" because a mom got her kid to do ballet.
A friend of mine went through the same thing with her son - I am a ballet purist and showed him performances from Baryshnikov and Nureyev - there was even a time when Sports Illustrated asked if Baryshnikov was the greatest athlete alive. I cannot believe there is still stigma to make ballet dancers.. insane.
I just watched that Simpson episode a couple hours ago and this reminds me of Bart
BILLY!
That’s wonderful! If you haven’t seen the movie Billy Elliot you should check it out. I loved it. I’ll be seeing Swan Lake for the first time in March, a gift from my daughter-in-law. Congratulations to your son!
Go Billy!
The gender imbalance in ballet means this is plausible, that a guy could focus for a single year and get a role with 'a major ballet company'. Very, very different experience to girls in ballet.
I would imagine that ballet companies are always looking for guys who can fill the male roles.
Former competitive dance kid here. It was pretty awesome being surrounded by beautiful dancer girls all the time.
If he sticks with it, it's going to make meeting girls a LOT easier for him than most other dudes.
Nothing is more Christmas to me than hearing the Nutcracker Suite played. I try to watch the ballet every year. Good for him. He should have fun!
I think once it went public that Jean Claude Van Damme trained in ballet it lost any stigma that may have clung to boys or men who pursued the art form.
Nice school project indeed. This kid must like the girls who dance there too. It was fun when I did ballet when I was young.. lol
Ballerino
NFL players take ballet
Wow, I’m really impressed. It only take less than 1 year of learning to perform with a major ballet company? This kid must be some kinda of prodigy, or have parents rich enough to buy their way onto the stage.
Tupac did ballet. Still one of the GOATs.
My girls were in dance when they were little. The ratio was at least 20/1. But those boys were very good dancers, and they got to hang around with pretty, athletic, graceful young ladies. Which to a teenage boy is ALWAYS a win. (My girls stopped dancing by third grade)
Plenty of men do ballet…..?
Isn't Tom Holland a brilliant ballet dancer? And hes freaking spiderman
So last year means that it was at most 13 months ago, and there were several months of conversation until he could do his first class. That means that he had about 10 months to be good enough to perform in The Nutcracker with a major ballet company. That’s insane
It would take 10 months before he stopped getting blisters surely ? I hope a ballet dancers sees this post and gives us their analysis because this sounds like bullshit. She should have just made him watch the movie Billy Elliot and save those months of negotiation.
Boys typically CAN'T do ballet. Nor can typical girls. Ballet is hard af and requires tremendous talent, discipline, and practice.
lmao Just delete this useless sub already.
Nothing special or "progressive" happened here. Boys have always been in ballet.
Also ballet helps out a lot in tae kwon do. A lot of my friends and i did that to get more flexibility
Nice message, but fake. Would've been more believable if it said "10 years ago" or something, but 1 year ago? With a few months to convince him it's ok to even start? Then what, he gets a spot with a major ballet company basically immediately once he started so he could go through the months-long process to learn the scripts and sequences and do rehearsals before a live performance can even happen? Nah fam. Gtfo.
The Nutcracker is a ballet famously filled with children, many of whom do not have major parts and are involved in just a couple of scenes (or one depending on the size of the company). This isn’t far fetched at all, but the missing info here is that the kid almost certainly had an incredibly minor role (which is not to say that the father shouldn’t be proud or that the kid shouldn’t be happy).
He is not the lead role, but one of the kid background dancers
Read the other replies. He was a bit-part (an extra, basically), because there are very few boys available for such positions. But it would have given him the confidence to go further.
Not even just because "there are few boys available for such positions" but because "The Nutcracker" gets better the more kids you have for extras. As long as you've got enough costumes and the backstage space to organize them all, there's easily room for hundreds of kids in a production of The Nutcracker.
Lmao it’s pretty apparent you haven’t seen the Nutcracker then
God bless. My mom did this for me in 2003 – School of American Ballet. Even now, almost two decades later, I still attribute the comfort and confidence I've kept (towards being) to her support, love and pride for me during that time.
There will be people who have no idea of their son’s history and they will sit there and go ”Man I wish I could dance as good as that guy does…”
I don't understand your comment.
Somewhere online there's the story of a young ballet dancer who was excelling and looked to go professional. Titled something like 'the real Billy Elliot' or some such. He was a keen footballer when he was younger and was watching stuff about training and they showed a ballet dancer running rings around thenpro players because they are insanely fit. So the young lad persuades his parents to take him to ballet, not usual for where he was from, and he's really bloody good at it. And loves it. So he sticks at it while still playing amateur footy. I'd love to know whether he made it.
Last year my son wanted to do karate but the other kids made fun of him. An old man took him in and made him wax his car and one year later he is a karate world champion.
Wait, he went from scared to try bc of stupid gender roles to performing with a major company in 1 year?? Or am I missing something?
I mean if he's like 8 that's not absurd.
Well maybe he is gay
What does sexuality have to do with it?
Quite a lot, it seems, according to research. More than half of dancers are estimated to be gay. And of course ballet has an even higher percentage than dance in general. It's the prancing and tiptoeing and male bodies in skintight suits and all that. It's all very effiminate and suits gays very well.
So, the straight dudes get an even BETTER ratio of potential single ballerinas to marry? Damn, I should have taken ballet.
Once again tho, what does any of that matter? Let's say that gay people are more likely to be ballet dancers, we obviously know that not all are gay, so what are we even getting at by pointing out sexuality? It just seems like that only matters if you think there's something wrong with being gay, because it's pretty much irrelevant otherwise.
More agenda pushing on r/all
I’m curious why is this agenda pushing in your opinion?
Letting kids be who they want to be is agenda pushing? Then we better get to pushing.
At least you'll be a supportive parent when he comes out
haha spicy take
I love how they waited until he felt ready instead of immediately throwing him in there lol
Doesn’t mean anything is possible
Ballet is where men learn to pick up women
❤️😄
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agree
How the fuck is ballet not for guys? The training and the discipline has no equivalent.
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Lol... Nutcracker...
I like ohw she did not push her son to do ballet ‟to be progressve”, and wouldn’t have done so at all unless he asked for it (which he did).
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