Notebook: Abolishing stereotypes about boys who dance
By Michael Crabb
Canada’s Ballet Jörgen has joined the ranks of various international initiatives aimed at supporting boys in dance. Earlier this year, the Toronto-based troupe, known for bringing quality ballet performances to mostly underserved communities, launched Böys Who Dance: Abolishing Stereotypes. It is an ongoing campaign whose central feature is an adaptable program offering boys aged nine to 17 the opportunity to be mentored by one of Ballet Jörgen’s men. Company co-founder Bengt Jörgen, who like many artistic directors of small companies must draw from a limited pool of capable male dancers, is pragmatic about his motivation: “I just want to see more boys dancing.”
Ballet Jörgen has built partnerships with local schools in the communities it visits. Students from those schools are sometimes incorporated into company productions. It has made Jörgen acutely aware of how isolated boys interested in ballet can feel. “They don’t have male role models and often not even male teachers. We felt we could perhaps help,” he says.
The mentoring program has started modestly with a first group of about ten students who connect weekly for one-hour sessions via FaceTime or similar platforms. The locales extend from Ottawa, Ontario to Fort St. John in northeastern British Columbia.
Jörgen emphasizes that his dancers are not counsellors. They have been trained to listen and are ready to share their own experiences and offer practical advice, but if they sense there are deeper issues that need attention, they pass their concerns on.
There are no equivalents for girls because dance is regarded as a gender-appropriate activity for them. It’s the opposite for aspiring male dancers who often confront an intimidating array of barriers and deeply insidious prejudice, most commonly the misguided assumption that if a boy is passionate about ballet he is at best a sissy or, even worse, gay.
Dancing, especially where tights are involved, is not generally perceived as a “manly” pursuit. Boys who do it may find themselves ostracized by their peers and subjected to demeaning taunts and physical bullying. In extreme cases it may cause them to abandon dance altogether.
“Who knows how many have fallen by the wayside?” asks Jörgen, who recounts being beaten up several times in the schoolyard during his boyhood in Stockholm because he was taking ballet. “It was pretty rough.”
Jonathan Renna, a retired National Ballet of Canada soloist who was part of a virtual Town Hall on the subject hosted by Ballet Jörgen in September, recalls how as a teenaged student returning to Ottawa during vacations from the National Ballet School in Toronto, he felt the need to “act normal.” Renna recalled, “I naturally stood and walked like a dancer but I’d force myself to slouch so I wouldn’t stand out.”
The bullying of adolescents, regardless of gender, whether among themselves or by adults, is now recognized internationally as a major problem that causes longterm psychological harm to its victims. Bullies pick on those they perceive as vulnerable. Being different in some way makes a young person an easy target. American director Scott Gormley’s 2018 documentary Danseur provided eloquent testimony to the hurtful stereotyping young men in ballet must go through to follow their dream.
The issue attracted global attention in August 2019 when Lara Spencer, co-host of ABC’s Good Morning America, responded mockingly to news that England’s then six-year-old Prince George would be taking ballet. The push-back on social media was damning. A few days later Spencer made an abject on-air apology. Spencer’s bigoted comments spurred the launch of the #boysdancetoo movement. In Australia, British-born ballet teacher and choreographer Jake Burden launched Ballet Brothers, “to support and encourage all boys who love to dance.”
However, as Washington Post dance critic Sarah L. Kaufman wrote in a lengthy response to Spencer’s dismissive comments, the damage had been done. Kaufman’s article drew wide attention to some chilling research. Studies in the United States concluded that more than 90 percent of male ballet students have experienced discomforting teasing. Nearly 70 percent have endured verbal or physical abuse. Professor Douglas Risner of Wayne State University in Detroit estimates that teenaged male ballet students are “at least seven times more likely than the general adolescent population to be bullied.”
The section of Ballet Jörgen’s website devoted to Böys Who Dance includes candid, inspiring, and sometimes heart-wrenching personal accounts of male company members’ own experiences.
“Being bullied makes you feel like you are little, like you are less than everyone else,” writes Scottish-born Callum McGregor. “I have been bullied in all three forms (cyber, physical and mental), in some way or another. Sometimes it wasn’t even for dancing; it was just for being gay.”
“It feels very uncomfortable when everybody is calling you ‘viadinho’ in Portuguese or ‘faggot’ in English,” says Brazilian-born Márcio Teixeira. “It is very painful to hear that, especially when it comes with so much negativity and aggression. My two brothers bullied me and used to call me ballerina. Because I was so fearful of letting others know that I was dancing, I never invited my parents to watch my performances. I would wash my dance belts by hand and hide them to dry.”
“Let’s face it,” says Jörgen, “a big part of the prejudice against boys in dance is homophobia; there’s no other way to slice it. And in my day we didn’t have to deal with social media. Now, bullying online grows exponentially. Push a button and it’s out there in the world, potentially forever.”
What emerges from the testimony of those who battled successfully through the prejudice to achieve a professional career is that they had a strong support network to bolster their self-confidence. Through Böys Who Dance, Ballet Jörgen aims to be part of that network. It hopes other companies will follow its lead. “We have developed this campaign for all of the boys out there who want to dream big and become a dancer. Let’s get our boys dancing because dance is for all!”
