Darn. :(

>>2) What about pointe shoes and regular ballet shoes? I wear a size 12 wide women's street shoe size, and wore a size 11 or 12 when I used to be a male. Will women's pointe and ballet shoes be hard to find in my size?>Regular ballet shoes will be easy to find, especially in men's section.  If you want pink shoes, look at Sansha shoes, Sansha makes all colors in all sizes.  Pink tights in your size might be a bit harder, but Capezio will probably have them.  Leotards... I have no idea, you will need a women's leotard because they have built-in support.

Thanks so much your help Bob! I will check out Sasha. I just hope I don't have to get custom shoes, since they cost a lot, I hear.

>>3) Will people complain if they think I am a male, but dancing and appearing as a female?>I have no idea whether or not people will complain, I don't know them.  But be aware that in ballet, your body and figure are very exposed.  If you have a straight figure with man-size hips, that will show.  I think it would be very hard to "pass" in the dance studio for this reason, in the sense of convincing people you were born female.

This is a good point! Plus, if my hair is in a classic ballet bun, this will make things even worse, until I get facial feminization surgery (FFS).

>So ballet brings about this kind of honesty about who you are.  I would hope that people would take it in stride, since you are who you are and it is (presumeably) born out of a deep sense of self.  Without the breasts, others might just see you as a guy in tights, leotard and a bun.  But even so, they should be able to deal with the idea that you were born male and are now female.  You will ultimately gain respect from the degree to which you work hard on the material in the class.>No matter who you are, your body is nothing to be ashamed of, you need to internalize that in dancing.

Thanks Bob. I feel better now. However, I will feel even better when I manage to lose more weight! And hormones might also help reshape my body fat to a more classic female pattern. I want to dance, but I need to be in shape. There is no such thing as an obese dancer. :)

>> Especially if I have to enroll in children's classes since I am a beginner >Adults generally enroll in adult beginner classes, you won't need to deal with children.>> and use the women's changing rooms?>This is the same as the "bathroom problem" at work, right?  Hopefully, you can work it out with the studio.  They might feel more comfortable if you use a private dressing room.

Hopefully, this will not be an issue, depending on how well I pass--I think I do reasonably well now, despite my size. It isn't a problem now in regular women's locker rooms, but then again, I am not in ballet uniform and hair bun there either. :)

Thanks for your reply Bob, and sorry for my slow response. I checked back the first few days, but no one had responded.