 the male dancer
written by             on 20.07. at 19:35:04 - as answer to: I finally did it!! by Dancer At Lastmysterious, & rather forbidding world to most men. They find ithard to believe that any "normal" man would actually want to dosuch a thing & would actually enjoy it. That's largely becausewhat goes on in a ballet class is not widely known. That & thefact that so many girls are keen on it, & so few men. And itdoesn't help that it's so hard to explain what's so enjoyableabout it. > I was afraid of what my friends and family would think. I let> what others think, deny me what I've always wanted to do. That's a large part of the problem. And what others think *can*matter, especially when you're young. The dancer, EdwardVillella, says that when he started ballet as a 9-year-old boy,he used to get in fights about it & would end up getting (&giving) black eyes over it. Of course, the good news is that if you're at all talented, & ifyou start young enough, it's easy to have a career in ballet.The competition among women is formidable, but men are still ascarce commodity in ballet. Somebody once claimed that ABT usedto take any man who could walk without crutches--clearly untrue,& unfair to ABT, but you get the picture. > It is one of THE most intense, complete workouts I've ever been> through!!! It's hard to see why this should be so, but it is. And it's alsothe most enjoyable. It isn't just all those pretty young girlsin their skin-tight clothes, although that certainly helps. It'sjust that it feels good to move the way you do in ballet. Idon't believe that there's any other kind of dance anywhere inthe world that feels as good to do as ballet does. You work yourbutt off, & the strange thing is that the harder you work, themore fun you have. All this still doesn't convey what it's like...but maybe itscratches the surface. Tom Parsons
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