BOYS WILL BE BOYS (and should dance like boys)

Matthew Neff | Feb 13, 2008 | there are 2 comments 2

It's an amazing thing to grow up and see that more guys are becoming dancers. Even in auditions I have noticed that there are more and more men. A few weeks ago I went away to judge a competition. For three straight days I sat there and  I think I watched close to 500 entries. Yeah it was a lot. The amount of boys dancing that weekend was easily the most I have ever seen in one weekend. Some of these little boys blew me away with the partnering skills that they were displaying. Throwing girls over their heads, one arm presses, and lots of other tricks forced me to recheck numerous times that these kids were only 12. I was really enjoying myself. (usually by day two I want the ceiling to collapse on me) All the enjoyment was soon lost when one school came out and "highlighted" their boy. The following is a straight forward talk to all studio owners, teachers, and male dancers.

When I was in college I remember a tech rehearsal where we were all asked to sit in the audience for notes. When I came around the curtain I said something stupid and very gay. A peer of mine at the top of her voice said , "You can dance and look like a man and then you come out here sounding like Minnie Mouse." We all laughed. It was funny.

That one moment is a perfect example of the point of this blog. A male dancer can be gay or straight. A male dancer can have the longest hair in the world. A male dancer can have the speaking voice of Mickey Mouse or Christian from Project Runway. When he walks on that stage the only thing he needs to portray is the connection to the choreography as a man.

(SIDE NOTE- There are companies where men dress is drag and go on pointe. I am obviously NOT referring to them)

So back to the competition---
The owner of the competition was humming the song of what she thought was coming next. I knew that the song was going to be a newer song and not the classic song that shared the same title. It is actually a very dirty song but it's lyrics seem kid friendly.

So the dance starts. Everyone froze in the audience as well as all the judges and competition staff. A simple jazz duet with a 15 year old boy and girl. What could be so wrong with that? Well there was one thing wrong. The boy was dancing like the prettiest girl at the ball. What made it worse were the lyrics he was dancing to. (I am being vague because I don't want to embarrass him in case he is reading this) Every step was so feminine and exaggerated that eventually the kids and adults in the audience were snickering and laughing at him. It's the first time I can remember judging someone and immediately wanting to chew off the teacher's head. How could she not know that girls and boys need different interpretations of the same movement?  Boys tend to not sit into their hips and tip like a Vegas showgirl. This boy was also wearing a girls costume purchased from a catalog. I felt two things: 1-- Extremely angry at this teacher for not teaching the obvious little mannerisms that separate male and female dancers.    2--Sorry for the kid. It was obvious that he is gay and he was having so much fun dancing but he needed to be guided with a male perspective  to give him a better example of how to move.

He came out and did several more numbers after the duet with a larger group of girls. He needed so much more guidance than the teacher could apparently give. I wanted to jump on the stage and show him how to put his hands on his hips like a dude. I wanted to stop him from sitting into his hip like a Rockette. I even asked the competition to bring over the studio director because I wanted to have words with her about this kid. That never happened. I did however give as much advice on the critique tape as I could without trying to offend anyone.

So what do you do if you have a boy at your studio and you have no experience teaching boys? Easy. Set up a master class with a male teacher for all your kids. Bring the boy to a professional studio and let him see real male dancers working in class. Go see shows with men performing. Go on Youtube. There are tons of resources for teachers and guys these days and this situation shouldn't be repeated.

As a community the arts is very gay friendly. The dance community doesn't care about sexuality. Dance is about movement. Sexuality is part of the person. Sensuality is part of the dancer. There is a difference. If we are going to continue to increase the numbers of boys that want to dance then teachers need to educate themselves on how to properly train the male dancers of this generation and the future.

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tags Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Modern, Broadway, Ballroom, Teacher, Parent, Studio, Competitions & Conventions, Performance, men dancing (all tags)


BOYS WILL BE BOYS (and should dance like boys) | 2 Comments | Post a Comment
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AMEN!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!  My daughter's boyfriend is a dancer & has received MANY compliments from judges at competitions  - thanking him for dancing like a guy!  Obviously he is not gay but even if you are - dance like a guy!

user icon Dmommab | Mar 04, 2008 | rated none by 0 others

Let a woman be a woman and a man be a man!

Thank you so much for writing this article.  As a male dancer it struck a very strong chord with me.  My dance form is what most people refeer to as belly dance.  A form that has been performed exclucively by women in public.  What most people do not kknow however, is that this dance is based on the local social dances of Egypt and that they are UNISEX.  Due to the booming tourist trade in the 19th and 20th centuries, Egypt saw a huge increase of foriegn visitors, not to mention that it was also a British protectorate and so there were thousands of young men looking to be entertained.  They also came with a preconceived fantasy image of the seductive harem girl fueled by popular fiction and the Orientalist movement.  Therefore enterprising  Egyptians began opening Western style music halls and night clubs to cater to them.  In the 1930's a well known dancer/actres named Badia opened a club of her own.  What she did was take the social dances of Egypt and theatricalised them, adding touches of ballroom dance to create a new spohisticated version of the dance.  The identifying mark was the two piece costume borrowed from Western "harem fantasy musicals"  This therefore became the image of the dance made famous by Egypt's own growning movie industry.

In recent times more men have begun to join their sisters on the stage, but like all dance forms, we face an uphill battle for acceptance.  The assumptions about our sexuality and fear of redicule has kept thousands of men, who are talented dancers, from taking the satge.

Unfortunately, many of the men who do choses to perform often end up looking like bad effeminate caricatures because of bad costuming and inappropriate gestures and body language.  Even though the movement vocabulary IS unisex, there are subtle differences in the ways that men and women do them.  

I've had many a dissagreement with women who, though supportive of male dancers, (because there are many studios who refuse to teach men), do not understand that the way a man presents himself on stage MUST be in accordance with a man's temperment and essence.  

When all is said and done, A.  We are entertainers for the general public and unfortunately, they are still too intollerant when it comes to the issue of human sexuality that does not fit neately into their conditioned expectations.  We do not have the time to challenge this.  It can make the difference between getting work or not and at the end of the day, we have to also remeber that there is an economic factor here.  They don't call it show business for nothing.

B.  The other issue is the growing number of male participation.  In every dance form men are underrepresented due in large part to the misperception that dance is unmanly.  If all the public ever sees are guys who confirm the stereotype, other guys, (gay and straight), will continue to shy away from the dance arts for fear of being rediculed as being weak.  They need to see as does the world in general, as many ordinary guys dancing as possible.  When that happens then perhaps the sight of an effeminate man won't matter because people will understand that it is only that individual's interpritation, not a reflection of all male dancers and they can decide to take it or leave it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5tGRD9Kjlg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oWHFcPVHd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvCmUyU6Gc8

user icon tariksultan | Mar 04, 2008 | rated none by 0 others

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