I’m bringing up 2 main questions here:

1. What do you think is cool about ballet?
2. How should it be highlighted to let others know how cool it is?

I will discuss a few of my ideas, but I really want to hear yours, so be sure to comment!

This post has 2 recent inspirations. David Wilson’s recent post at Dave Tries Ballet called “Ballet Coolness”. Dave pointed out that he took a friend to see some ballet, and they commented that it was “cool.” Dave shared a bunch of great ballet videos, posters, and twitter users that really highlight the coolness of ballet. We all know it is there, but not everyone sees through the stereotypes, so Dave really points out things that blow that stereotype away. I’ve shown a lot of my non-ballet friends some of the videos he links to.

Another inspiration was a recent conversation with a few dancer friends of mine. They are in a really great university dance program, but it hasn’t done much to draw non-dance university crowds to their shows. One of my friends was really talking about all of her plans to get more people to the amazing performances, and to actually get them to embrace the coolness of dance.

These recent inspirations have brought me to these 2 questions. What is it that is so cool, and how do we show others how cool it is? I can only begin to give some of my own ideas, but I know everyone else will have tons more. I just want to put in my ideas, so feel free to leave your ideas in the comments.

BLOGGERS: Feel free to write your own post answering these questions and leave a link in the comments.

What is Cool about Ballet?

First, I think there is an inherent coolness in any alternative form of expression, or any art. Art is sometimes covered by a thin layer of stereotypical un-coolness, but when you get past that most people can see that being able to express something in different ways is pretty darn cool.

Skills are cool. It makes me think of Napoleon Dynamite, but everyone is in some way impressed by a skill. Sometimes jealousy might cover that, but I think that people only get jealous when they think they have no chance of getting something. Let people know they can learn a skill too, and they will think it is cool. The cool thing about a skill is that it takes dedication. When someone is skilled at something, it shows they work hard and are committed to something. We generally like people with those traits, so we think skills are cool.

Athleticism is cool. Look around, it is highlighted in advertisements, comic books, movies, everything. However, in many typical situations, athleticism is shown through being better than someone else. Dance and ballet is not so much about competition (even though competition shows may be how people access it). The athleticism of a dancer requires someone to be better than they can possibly be. It is a competition with a self, not so much a domination over another, but it is pretty darn cool.

Confidence is cool. You need confidence in dance. Up to and just before arrogance, confidence is cool. Pick on dancers all you want, but it is pointless to pick on a confident dancer. One of the cool things I find about the confidence of a dancer is that it is practiced. It doesn’t come from nowhere. It is practiced, developed, and portrayed. That makes it even cooler.

Being a rebel is cool. And not everyone dances.

But being a rebel who fits in anywhere is really freaking cool. One of my favorite definitions of cool went something like this: “Someone who can fit in with the punks and the squares without changing who they are.” Never mind my usage of “punk” and “square,” but it is really cool if you can fit into 2 different ends of social spectra, just by who you are. Ballet kind of does that. You can be an artist and express and explore, but there is also a cultured tradition behind it that connects you to the classical. You have credential and street-cred.

How do we show how Cool Ballet is?

The first thing I think that needs to be done, is breaking away from the stereotypes of lame, boring, up-tight classical ballet. At least a little bit. But, we still really need to be authentic when we do that. We should stick to what we really believe, and not just try to pander to what we think people think is cool. That is why I think it is so important to think about what WE think is so cool about it first. I believe that there are failed examples of trying to get others to think ballet is cool. Most of the examples I see are in trying to make ballet cool to guys: “You get to hang around with girls” or “It helps you with sports.” Do any of us really find that cool? No. It is either creepy or lame, not cool. It is just an attempt to try and guess what other people care about. Stop guessing, be true to what you care about, and others will find it cool as well.

Movies, stories, etc usually show a bit of ballet cool. Sometimes it might just be the moves that come across as cool. Sometimes ballet movies play off the same stereotypes that make it hard for people to connect with ballet. Movies or stories that really show the cool parts, like learning a skill, becoming confident, expressing something, those do a good job of making ballet look cool.

Anything viral. Isn’t everything viral cool? Those short ballet videos Dave showed in his post or anything you can share on Facebook that shows how ballet is cool. That helps it. It helps with marketing individual performances or dancers, but also helps promote the art in general.

T-shirts. I believe, that in some subtle way, cool t-shirts about ballet will support an embraceable lifestyle around ballet. People wear skateboard t-shirts and don’t skateboard. People wear mixed martial arts shirts and never get into a cage match. I believe that eventually people will wear ballet t-shirts because they think that lifestyle is darn cool, even if they’ve never taken a dance class. That is why I started HD Wear and HD Ballet Design. Both of those companies will be receiving some advances later this year. Part of the discussion I had with my friend was about building a marketing budget just from t-shirt sales to dancers. We had some really cool ideas. Basically, in a decent size company it is possible to sell quality custom t-shirts, to any dancers who want them, at reasonable prices and profit enough to throw a decent post-performance gala to draw in a younger crowd. I could talk more about this forever, and maybe some day I will.

Targeted performances. I think that having more options to take dance out of its very classical setting, and putting it where people have more access to it is great. This happens so much, and it seems to be getting even more popular with the internet.

Collaboration. Ballet collaborating with different genres or media exposes it to more people and shows it isn’t an inflexible form.

These are just some ideas I have. What are your ideas or examples?

tl;dr – Think about what is cool about dance. How would you share that?

Hello Everyone!

This weekend was our last weekend of Nutcracker shows. I got together with some dancers after a Friday night show to record a podcast.

Danny and Sylvain are awesome guys and great dancers. They’re twins, both started ballet at 18 years old, currently dance with Coriolis Dance, and guested with Ballet Northwest for our Nutcracker. They also perform throughout the burlesque scene. Really interesting guys!

We had our fellow dancers and friends Miriam and Kiara join us as we discussed many different topics including, performing, guys on pointe, partnering, perks of ballet and much more.

Keep in mind this is Friday night, a bit after midnight and we just performed a great show and grabbed some dinner. We definitely start out with a few laughs, but we get a little more serious. Sometimes. Enjoy it!

Refresh your podcast or Download Episode 10 here.

Subscribe via iTunes:  Ballet for Men Podcast

non-iTunes feed: feed://www.balletformen.com/podcast.xml

Thanks for listening!

In order to vote for BalletForMen.com as one of the Top Dance Blogs of 2010, please leave a comment on this post below. It is quite simple, just something to say that you believe this is one of the best ballet blogs of 2010. Thank you.

Dance Advantage is a great dance site, running a little healthy competition. You know I always talk about community over competition, but I think this competition helps to build and call attention to a community. There are a lot of great sites out there about ballet. I’m excited to see some of my favorites get recognition. I’m also excited to perhaps see some new ones that I have not come across.

I think this is a good place to perhaps review some of what Ballet For Men has done in 2010.

Over 2010 Ballet For Men has contributed:

• Numerous inspiring posts and discussions
• Several excellent podcast interviews (more to come 2011)
• Free Ballet Apparel for Men e-book (top resource for men)
• Published Ballet Apparel for Men (available on Amazon or in bookstores)
• Created cool t-shirts for guy dancers (and girl’s who want to support guys)

Whenever I receive a comment that in any way reflects that I helped push someone toward trying a ballet class, or makes them feel better about continuing, I feel great. It really keeps me going.

I’m also very proud of some of the work that I have done behind the scenes on some other sites. I’m not allowed to mention sites here, because some of them are competing as well, but I was fortunate enough to help create some amazing sites that are entirely run by some amazing dancers, writers, and thinkers. I like to believe that Ballet For Men has helped not only male dancers, but the entire online dance community. I hope to do even more in 2011 though! Ha Ha.

Thanks to Nichelle at Dance Advantage for setting up this contest. I think it is a great way to get bloggers to consider the achievements over 2010, as well as get some well deserved recognition!

Thanks for voting and supporting.

David Hunter

I often write about the personal benefits of dance. I believe that it is encouraging for people to recognize how taking part in dance could really lead to positive benefits in their life. But what are the larger scale benefits? It may be easier for you to recognize how dance benefits your own life, but how does dance benefit everyone else? How does dance benefit the rest of society?

Given what I have been up to for the last few months, it seems fitting that I begin to ask this question. I’ve spent the past 3 months student teaching at a public middle school. This particular school is very arts-based, so I was fortunate enough to teach 2 periods of dance per day. It was an amazing experience. Very few schools have dance programs. Arts programs in general are consistently under review. Many schools are facing very large cut-backs in their budgets, and so, many decide to cut their art programs. Because of this, I feel I really need to know how to support dance and art. I really need to be able to portray the positive aspects from the perspective of budget-minded schools who are often focused on meeting evolving and confusing standards.

My hope is that I will find a job in either English or Social Studies, but bring my Dance endorsement and convince the school I am at to start a small dance program, if they do not already have one. For the next few months I will be writing my Master’s paper on the positive ways of integrating art into core curriculum. I have already been researching this idea a bit, and definitely pull some ideas with dance in mind.

I will share some of the ideas that I have come across, and will continue to share and support new ideas as I explore this idea. Here is a basic introduction to the ideas I’ve so far stumbled across. Some ideas may seem obvious, but it is important to think of the evidence we can find for these ideas.

Sample of benefits:

• students who study art learn important skills for employment
• studying art positively affects cognitive development
  • Dance instruction leads to improved visual-spatial skills
• arts in schools encourages more involvement/less absences
• students who study art have shown (in many studies across many different areas and types of students) higher standardized test scores than students who do not study art

One of the ideas that really touched me was the idea that students who were at-risk of dropping out or had less advantages, were most positively affected by art programs in school. As a high school dropout myself, I am very interested in anything that could help students find their place in school. Similar, there is evidence that art and dance is very beneficial for incarcerated youth (children in jail or juvenile detention). As a child I had my fair share of run-ins with the wrong side of the law. I’m extremely thankful that my life didn’t end up with me in jail, but I understand how easy it is for someone to end up there, and that these children are not just “monsters”. Many times they have just not found other ways to fit in society.

Because of this last idea, I began to wonder if there were any dance programs for dis-advantaged or incarcerated youth. A quick search revealed Stanford’s program which brought dance to juvenile halls. There is a great article here that goes into depth about many of the benefits of dance in prisons and in rehabilitation. At some point I would love to go deeper into this topic.

The college I am doing my Master’s degree at has a mentor program where college students visit once a week to work with incarcerated youth at nearby juvenile centers. Over the winter I will be volunteering with this program one day each week. While doing so, I will be working with the program to see if weekly dance workshops would be a benefit to the youth in the centers. If it seems that it will be positive, I plan to develop a weekly dance workshop to deliver to inmates for a couple of months in the spring. I understand that it could be possible that this won’t work, but I’m excited that it is even a possibility. My dance teaching experiences so far have had many possibilities to fail, but have seemed to contribute much more than I expected.

Over the next several months I’ll be sure to keep readers up-to-date with what I find. How do you think dance benefits society?

3 years ago this month, I took my first ballet class. I was 25 years old. What can you do when you start ballet at 25 years old? This post is a little bit of recap about what has happened in the past 3 years.

I very easily could have been mad about not starting ballet younger and missing out on all the great opportunities that ballet has for guys. Instead, I tried to help other guys recognize the opportunities ballet offers. In doing so, I’ve come across many opportunities.

In the 3 years I’ve been doing ballet, my confidence has grown and I feel happier. I enjoy taking part in dance. I don’t have anymore natural ability than the average person, but I’ve been working hard. I fit in as many classes as I can, usually 4 or 5 a week. I’ve performed in shows per year since I began. I started out with very small parts, and have worked up to solos. This has been in a local pre-professional company. I do not get paid, but get my classes paid for, and get the opportunity to perform in front of crowds up to 1,000 people. I’ve also had the opportunity to perform in many different dance festivals.

After a couple of years, I started BalletForMen.com to try and inform other guys interested in dance. The site has slowly grown, and received a lot of great feedback. I receive many e-mails and comments from other guys who were inspired and began taking dance. I’m glad to have contributed at all to that. I’ve been fortunate enough to help some great people with their own websites, as there are multiple other websites that I’ve been hosting for other authors. I believe that this helps to create a stronger online dance community.

Through this blog, I’ve also published Ballet Apparel for Men: A Complete Beginner’s Guide, started HD Wear, a dance t-shirt company, and started to teach dance to elementary school boys at my local studio. While working to become a public school teacher, learning dance has also helped me to integrate arts into the public school curriculum, and teach dance classes at a local performing arts public school.

I’ve also met some of the greatest people I know, including my girlfriend of over 2 years who I met while we performed together. And throughout all of this, I’ve been learning and crafting something I love. I’ve learned to express through dance what I could never say with words.

This is not a post to brag, but a post to answer the question of “What can a 25 year old late-starter in ballet do?” The answer to that is a lot more than you would ever imagine.

There have been a lot of great comments about how to get people into dance over on Pas de Trois at Dancing3.com. I’ll agree that one of the challenges of getting new people into appreciating dance, is to try and expose them to what they might be interested in.

I believe that it helps to inform people, even just a little bit, so that they are more likely to enjoy what they see. If you know about dance, you know what to appreciate. If you are new, you may not even have one idea of what to look for.

For a project in my teaching program, I had 5 students who did not have much experience with ballet. I showed them a video of a ballet performance. After that, I spent about 5 minutes going over the 5 basic ballet positions of the feet. I let them try them out, and we reviewed them just a tiny bit. I explained that these are like “rules” of ballet, and that most movements come from one of these positions.

I showed a video of a ballet performance to the group again, but told them to watch for the ballet positions. We had a discussion after the video, and I was amazed to see how much they had to say about the performance. They could discuss details of the performance, and recognized where a position wasn’t hit to perfection. Where just a few minutes before, this group didn’t know anything about viewing a ballet, with a few minutes more of information, they were able to discuss and critique a ballet.

This week I had a similar experience in the dance class I am teaching at a public performing arts middle school. I had students write what they knew about dance, and what they wanted to know, to gauge their prior knowledge. We then spent 4 days learning a few simple elements of dance. We spent one day each exploring Levels, (high, medium, low), Speed (fast, medium, slow), Body Shapes (straight, curved, angular, twisted), and Force (strong and light). After moving through all of these elements, we viewed videos of two different dances. They were instructed to pay attention to and take notes about the different elements that we worked with. After watching them, we discussed the dances.

Again, I was impressed with the level of discussion that went on. Judging by the discussion and the notes the students took, I don’t think anyone was bored to watch the dances, even though we watched them over and over. I believe that understanding what contributes to a dance, helped them to appreciate what they were seeing.

A small amount of education will help people engage with the art. Educating people isn’t the hard part. The hardest part may be getting people into a situation of wanting to know. But if you pay attention, I think you will find people who are interested to learn. If you decide to take someone to a ballet, or expose them to dance, try providing them with a little bit of information that they can hang on to and engage with.

This article is part of a collaboration project that I am working on with Henrik from Tights And Tiaras and Catherine from 4dancers. We are working together on “Pas de Trois” at dancing3.com. Each week we will present a question or issue pertaining to the dance world. We’ll foster a discussion on the topic and invite other people to join in with their ideas as well. We hope this will be a fun and engaging project that will help to create a stronger online dance community. You will be able to find the weekly question, along with links to the discussions at dancing3.com.

Many of these questions I feel like I might not be as much of an authority, since I’m a relatively new dancer, and I’m not professional. But here, I feel I have just as much to say as anyone. As a late starter, I feel I can remember all of the times in class. On the other hand, I know many dancers who don’t remember first learning to dance.

As an adult male beginner, there were a lot of things that I had to learn. I feel like I’m still  a slow learner, so one of the most important qualities I think a teacher can have is understanding. It is important for teachers to be fairly talented, but if they don’t understand the many ways that dancers learn, that talent won’t necessarily transfer to the students. Of course a combination of talent and understanding makes for an excellent teacher.

I’ve taken classes from many different teachers. Many dancers do. Many of them were great teachers, and everyone usually helped me to learn valuable lessons. If I am struggling in class, but I know I am being understood, I’m still happy and able to learn.

Everyone learns in different ways. An understanding teacher can be flexible enough to teach to a variety of students.

This question is important to me. This summer I began teaching creative dance classes for elementary school boys at my dance studio. Especially with these new dancers, I find it important to be understanding. I also found out today, that I will be co-teaching two dance classes a day for the next semester at a performing arts public middle school. I’m very excited to help bring dance to public schools. I’m hoping that I can take my learning experiences as an adult male beginner and help younger dancers enjoy their learning and growth.

This article is part of a collaboration project that I am working on with Henrik from Tights And Tiaras and Catherine from 4dancers. We are working together on “Pas de Trois” at dancing3.com. Each week we will present a question or issue pertaining to the dance world. We’ll foster a discussion on the topic and invite other people to join in with their ideas as well. We hope this will be a fun and engaging project that will help to create a stronger online dance community. You will be able to find the weekly question, along with links to the discussions at dancing3.com.

In some ways I feel like we are starting with one of the hardest questions. It is great because it is engaging and everyone has excellent input, but it is so hard to pick a single dancer as your favorite.

Something else that has come up in the discussion, is how we give dancers that we see more often a higher rating. There are some dancers that I see quite often that I definitely enjoy and admire. Ironically, I think I’m going to choose someone I’ve never seen perform in person. I think I’m going to say that Peter Boal is one of my favorite dancers.

Photo by Paul Kolnik with NYCB

I was pretty sure I would choose a male dancer. No offense to the ladies, but that is what I relate to, and that is what I’m drawn to when I watch a performance. I also knew that they would not only have to be a great dancer, but also a great role model. I also wanted to choose a dancer who continued to be a dancer even after they stop performing. This way I would know they really loved to dance, and it was not just a career decision they made and were stuck with.

Peter Boal is the artistic director for Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle (so I see their performances a lot), but he got his start in New York City. He has danced with a lot of great choreographers, dancers, and visionaries. Peter Boal started dancing at 9 years old at the School of American Ballet, after watching NYCB perform Balanchine’s Coppélia. Even from the beginning he showed great promise. Although he wanted to quit ballet after his first year, he was encouraged to continue. It is a good thing he stuck with it. Boal worked his way up to New York City Ballet as a corps member. Four years later he was a soloist, and in two more years he was a principal. He spent a total of 22 years dancing for New York City Ballet.

In 2005, Mr. Boal retired from NYCB and took up the position as artistic director of PNB. At PNB, Boal has brought the style of Balanchine, but has also pushed ballet-goers to think beyond what they typically think of as dance. PNB’s seasons contain a wide range of performance styles, making it exciting to attend all of their performances.

Peter Boal is one of my favorite dancers, not just for what he has done on stage, but for what he does behind the scenes, and for the type of person he is off-stage. Along with being the artistic director for PNB, he is also the director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Several weeks ago I was lucky enough to take a master class instructed by Peter Boal. He was a great instructor, and it was also obvious that he believed everyone should participate in the enjoyment of dance.

I think it is important for dancers, no matter who they work with, or what they have done, to continue to welcome new interest into dance. It is obvious that Mr. Boal enjoyed his dance career, and he wants other dancers to find that same enjoyment.

Who is your favorite dancer and why? Join the discussion at Pas de Trois at dancing3.com.

Hey readers! We’ve got an exciting new Dance site starting up this week. This is a project that Catherine at 4dancers, Henrik at Tights and Tiaras, and I have been preparing for a little while now.

Through Pas de Trois, we hope to get a lot of positive discussions started about dance. Each week we’ll be featuring a topic. Every couple days one of us will give our insight, and we’ll always be encouraging you to take part as well.

At Ballet For Men, one of the big ideas I try to get across is that the dance world is full of many different people. Pas de Trois will bring in a lot of great perspectives. Hopefully we’ll help to create a stronger community as well.

Bookmark Pas de Trois, and check back in with it. We’ll announce our first discussion topic very soon. Also, check out our Facebook-page, join the discussion on Twitter, or add our RSS feed to your reader.

Hope to see you there! Visit now!

Before I get started with this post, I want to tell everyone to check out: www.DaveTriesBallet.com
This is a new site by a new male beginner who is excited to start taking ballet soon. I think this will be really helpful for anyone considering trying ballet too. I also think seasoned dancers will enjoy being reminded why they started dancing in the first place.

Flexibility was one of my many concerns when I started to take ballet. When we think of ballet dancers, we tend to picture extremely flexible people with their leg somewhere we’ve never imagined it could reach. I thought I was too old to get the splits. I know a lot of other people worry about flexibility too, especially guys. I get asked about it a lot. Sometimes it is the first question after people find out I’m a dancer, “can you do the splits?” To which I usually answer, “not in these jeans.”

I want to talk a bit about stretching and the possibilities of flexibility, especially with older beginners, and male beginners. This will be sort of an introduction for the more scientific and strategic ideas on stretching I hope to write later.

As it is with most things in dance (and in some ways, life), stretching is very much about the mindset that you have. If you believe you will never get the splits or gain more flexibility, you won’t. You just won’t put in the effort. And I don’t mean that if you just think you’ll get flexible you will. You have to believe it enough to put in some effort.

When I started taking ballet, at 25, I didn’t know if I would gain much flexibility. I could see how girls could, they’re more flexible right? And I guess if guys take ballet from when they are six, they keep their flexibility from when they are young. I believed that people, especially guys, became less flexible as they got older.

I still worked a lot on stretching. I knew that if I didn’t do it, and didn’t try really hard, I wouldn’t get better as a dancer. Flexibility shows up a lot in dance. I started to read a lot of books on stretching, and I think that was what helped me the most. I saw that much of what I believed and heard wasn’t really true.

With a few ideas in mind, I kept working on stretching. I don’t feel like I’ve reached an ultimate point, but in dance you never really do. I feel I could always be more flexible, but I can get the splits (when in proper attire and properly warmed up), and I’m way more flexible than when I started. I started to recognize that a late 20’s male who wasn’t very flexible but worked hard could be more flexible than a 13 year old girl who took ballet her whole life but didn’t work much on stretching.

Here are some ideas to keep in mind as you work on stretching:

It isn’t about age, but use
People don’t get less flexible because they get old. They get less flexible because they get old and stop moving. This is a big difference. Sure, as you get older your body doesn’t repair as fast, but it doesn’t shut down either. You may gain your splits slower, but it is not impossible.

The splits are possible for the average person
A lot of people believe that some body types can’t be flexible. For example, when I was reading about getting the splits, I saw a lot of discussions on martial arts forums where people said that they heard African American people aren’t as flexible because their muscles are more dense. There is not drastic body difference like this. The biggest differences would be between male and female, and with flexibility, the differences are minute. It may be more easy for some people, but it is possible over time and work for everyone.

The Splits Test
Michael Kurz, author of Stretching Scientifically (2003) gives a test to see if you will physically be able to do the splits. Part one is to do a deep lunge. If you can get your thighs in a straight line, that means your hip joints and ligaments don’t prevent you from the front splits. Part two is for the side splits. Put your leg out to the side and rest it on the back of a chair or on a table, about hip height. If you can get your hip and standing leg in line, it is possible for you to get the side splits (try both sides).

Stronger muscles stretch more
The stronger you get your muscles, the more they’ll stretch. This was really helpful for me. I started using the abducter and adducter machines at the gym, and my flexibility sky rocketed. If a muscle is stronger, it will stretch further before tightening up. Weaker muscles will tighten up much earlier than a stronger muscle.

NOTE: I don’t really know any non-awkward way to workout the adducter or abducter. Those are the muscles between around your inner thighs. For some reason, whenever I work them out at the gym, I start to think people think I’m hitting on them. If you have room to do it at home, you can lie on your back and put your legs up straight. Open your legs wide and close them. Keep repeating this. Try to do 50. Try to get up to 100. Put weights on your ankles. I never have space to do this at home, so I use the machines at the gym. They are the machines where you open and close your legs to lift the weight. I used to always feel weird when I would stretch at the gym. Eventually you’ll get over it, and in a little while you’ll be so flexible it is impressive. I also realized that most people at the gym really don’t know what they are doing when it comes to stretching, so they won’t judge you that much.

There are different types of stretching
Ideas behind stretching have come so far since I was in school (wow I sound old). There has been a lot of research on stretching, and there are probably more ways to do it wrong than right.

Static stretching (holding a stretched position for a long period of time) can be tiring for your muscles and not the best to start off with. Basically, I save it until after my class or workout.

Dynamic stretching (stretching in movement) is better for warming up. These are stretches that combine movement and flexibility. Leg swings or arm swings are an example of dynamic stretching. These will warm you up for movement (before class), but can be not as good if your muscles are tired.

Stretching is a process
It takes time. Do a little every day. Stretch a little in the morning, after your workout, before bed. Fit it into your routine. Don’t push it too fast. Work but don’t strain.

These basic ideas will help you get a mindset that will help you gain flexibility. Know that you can do it. I hope to write more later, with actual research based techniques and examples.