Wednesday, June 13, 2018

BOYS IN BALLET

Ballet is a physical and athletic activity requiring great skill, strength, and agility. “Skill, strength, and agility” sound like the traits of a young energetic boy ….so, where are they?

In today’s world, most of us don’t picture boys dancing in tight pants and tutus, and mostly think of ballet being a feminine dance form and boys should play the grittier sports. This mindset infects most of us but if we knew benefits of ballet, boys would encourage by one and all to join ballet.




Ballet requires concentration, balance, and most importantly calm mind and body. Acquiring all this isn’t a tough task and there are many more benefits for us to pursue ballet as a hobby or maybe even a career. It even improves muscular strength, flexibility, and range of motion. There are some combinations that require jumping and leaping which increases heart rate and can improve endurance, stamina and overall cardiovascular health. Like other forms of dance, ballet can improve body awareness and physical self-control.



The legendary Mikhail Baryshnikov doing a Pas De Deux

Several successful international footballers – Lynn Swann, Herschel Walker, Barry Sanders and Willie Gault, for instance – have turned to dance to enhance their skills. Even senior tailback DeAngelo Williams, a training junkie who gained 1,948 yards and scored 22 touchdowns last year said: “I would rather do sprints and up-downs than ballet.” It all started in the 1970’s when a wide receiver Lynn Swan announced that he had taken yoga and ballet classes to prepare for his games. Ever since then, NFL coaches have pushed players into taking ballet classes for strength.



Lynn Swann

Ballet in itself is a mesmerising form of dance that never fails to enthral the viewer by its sheer grace of presentation. We have managed to taint it by disregarding half of human race from enjoying the beauty of it. Men, stereotypically, are supposed to be tough, strong and devoid of grace. Are we wronging? Believing this not only deprives this dance-form of talented artists but also stops the men who view this as a passion for pursuing it.

The patriarchal world may have deprived ballet of undiscovered talents for a long duration but the tides of time have successfully changed the mindset. More and more boys are enrolling in ballet by the day to pursue their passion and are excelling.


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