All these years I’ve been shouting ‘Bravo!’ for both ballerina and ballerino. According to the NBoC’s website ‘Bravo!’ is for males and ‘Brava!’ for females. ‘Bravo!’ sounds better with the ‘o’ and I think it would carry farther sound wise. To tell you the truth I’ve never heard a ‘Brava!’ Can anyone elaborate on this very important topic?

Bravo is an Italian word meaning (literally) brave or (figuratively) well-done.

Now in Italian, generally speaking, masculine words finish with 'o' ('i' for plural) and feminine words finish with 'a' ('e' for plural), though there are exceptions.

Bravo is not an exception. Therefore, for a male dancer (ballerinO) you would holler 'bravO', and for a female dancer (ballerinA) one would yell, 'bravA'. For a group of male or mixed dancers you would use 'bravi' and for a group of female dancers you would use 'brave' (pronouncing the 'e' like in 'bed').

Hope that cleared it up for you!

Thank you so much! I need to brush up on my Italian!

Thanks for explaining the Italian words, Failli, but I have to say that whereas "bravo" is a generally used term in English, "brava", "bravi" and "brava" are not. Thus, as I have no Italian connections, I will stick to the English usage and continue to shout "bravo" to all and sundry.

Where do the Italians get off telling us how to cheer for ballet? I thought fussball was their only domain! BRAVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!