My arm and hand just shot up into the air! Me! Me! I'm a ballet-dancing Eagle Scout!! (Not to mention modern-dancing Eagle Scout.)

I'm not making this up.

GO ballet-dancing Eagle-Scouts!!!

That could even be: "Go, heretofore-unacknowledged-ballet-dancing Eagle Scouts!"
But regardless, hooray!

Yes, I know of 2 more. Marcus Bugler assistant ballet master of the Met Opera and his brother Luke who quit dancing when he was a teenager. Their Dad was the Scout Leader.

Wow! The paper interviewed my old teacher, Noble Barker at Pioneer Valley Ballet School. He taught me in New Haven when I was little. Those are ten lucky boys he has.

It is, sadly, not an unusual thing that happened to that boy, though I had hoped it would become less frequent. About 15 years ago I was watching a ballet class when a mother brought a 12-year-old boy in late, and she went directly to the teacher and explained that when he came home from school so that his mother could take him to ballet, he'd been attacked by some schoolmates and beaten up a bit and called a sissy, and he did indeed have a nasty bruise on his face. Brave kid, though, he was determined to get to class and finished it and did grow up, I found out, to dance professionally.

I think it would have been easier for the boy had his father danced. As much as so many dancing women would like to see their children enjoy it, you really do need male role models.

Out of the four male dancers at the Met who had families 1 has a son that is quite the dancer at SAB. His sister also is on her way to a career in ballet as well.

This is for Citibob actually. NOBLE BARKER !! Wow did that name stir some memories!! My son danced at New Haven a few years back (he was an SAB student at the time) He was the jester in Cinderella with Katrina Killian ( former solist of NYCB) What a great experience! Small small world this ballet world. Thanks for jogging my memory!! lol

If you are a man in the United States and dance you are gay/a sissy/a dreamer/a loser/etc./etc., especially if you do it in tights instead of pants. You can't talk about it to your friends, your parents, your family, your in-laws, or your work acquaintances. You keep it mostly to yourself your entire life. You share it with few, and the thing you love lives only in your private dreams and memories. That's the way it is; that's the way it will always be in our left-side-of-the-bell-curve culture. Grow extremely large, learn to throw a ball, and knock people down and you will be worshiped from Dallas to Green Bay, from Pittsburgh to Oakland.

<small>[ 11 January 2003, 04:58 AM: Message edited by: Liscarkat ]</small>

Ballet boy sues over bullying

Wednesday, 8 January, 2003, 14:35 GMT
BBC News

Kristopher King suffered an injured foot
A mother who says her son was bullied because he wants to be a ballet dancer is suing an education authority.

Kristopher King, 11, says other pupils picked on him and even injured his foot in an attack.

His mother, Diane, says his career could be ruined because he needs an operation following the injury.

Mrs King alleges Derby City Council has not done enough to protect her son.

more...

At Hula Festival, Men Who Dance Are Dwindling

April 27, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
From the New York Times

VOLCANO, Hawaii, April 26 - On the wind-swept rim of Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, dancers in raffia skirts sway to music and chants as they prepare for the Merrie Monarch Festival, the Olympics of hula competition.

Among those dancing at Kilauea this week were 13 men from the Hula Na Mamo O Pu'uanahulu hula school, who are something of a rarity. Dance veterans say the number of men trying to preserve one of Hawaii's most treasured traditions has been dropping for years.

more...

<small>[ 27 April 2003, 12:23 PM: Message edited by: citibob ]</small>

This article gets me depressed. It seems the cultural trends against men in dance are so strong and growing.

Citibob: Have you seen Bourne to Dance? Matthew Bourne looks at dance and men in particular and I thought it was quite encouraging.

I just want to comment that for the men and boys that do stick with dance, the advantages they have over women never cease to amaze me. Quick, how many female ballet choreographers can you name? How many male? How many artistic directors of each? And virtually almost the same thing in modern... and this in a field that is demographically more than 90% female, it seems that men certainly have an enormous advantage in terms of ultimately gaining power and authority.

A friend of mine who was teaching at American Dance Festival a few years ago almost wept when she got there, and realized 12 of the 14 repertory classes offered were teaching the work of male artists. And the two that were teaching the work of female artists were being taught by men. Seems that people don't respect something unless men do it.