Andy!  What Joe wrote is right...enroll in ballet classes now!!!

I doesn't matter if the teacher is male of female at this point.  You need to get the basics down, and you need the discipline of the classroom.

Don't focus on "catching up" with your friends.  Building the proper base is what's needed in the beginning.  Ballet is not a matter of competition, but of doing the best you can with the talent you have.  Focus on the basics of technique, and focus on the expression of yourslf with the dance, even with what might seem to the the most basic exercises.  There's a theory called "dance-imagry" where you should express yourself, the feelings and the emotions, into the dance, rather than just being mechanical.  So build up the technique (the "mechanics") and the expression.  You'll do better!

Also, although I said don't compete with your friends, it is known in sports medicine that working out with a "buddy" can help both persons achieve desired goals.  So rely on your friends for support and extra-work outside classes, but do it for the sake of dance and not to try to get better than someone else.

Now get to class!  DancingDoc

P.S.  Also, consider other forms of dance, like modern or jazz.  Take several different classes a week (or each day!).  I'm partial to ballet, because it gives the basics of movement for performing well in other other dance-forms.  I try to take 6 ballet classes each week, at my "advanced" age!