Anonymous, my recent questions have been tendentious - if this site is for The Serious Male Dancer, let us be men who are serious about dance. Ballet is not about textiles. Sure, issues relating to costume have their place, but the topic is not endlessly fascinating to me and certainly isn't why I spend serious chunks of my limited free time and disposable income in ballet class.
That said, I agree with almost everything you have mentioned about those other ballet sites (that shall remain nameless). I, too, have been censored. Even the areas that are supposed to be set aside for men only are over-monitored, in my opinion. I have been told outright that if a parent tunes in to a part of the site that is supposed to be off-limits to her, she'll raise holy hell if she disapproves of what she reads.
Consequently, there can be no honest discussions about sensuality in dance. Gay men, who for most of the 20th century were both the most numerous ballet dancers in America, as well as ballet's sustaining audience and patrons, may be seen but not heard. In fact, we are to pretend not only that this history never happened, but that gay men are now a minority in every way in the dance world.
Nothing whatsoever that could possibly afright the ballet moms is permitted, and a post that is so deemed by the moderators will be deleted straightaway.
Yet, for all the prissiness, not to mention the homophobia that dare not speak its name, those sites are extremely valuable. The numbers and diversity of the participants brings a lot of experience to bear on the many dance questions that don't directly involve s-e-x.[/i]