'A Great Leap Forward For Male Dancers'

Men In Motion opens today at Sadler's Wells.  This is a show which is bringing together some of the best male ballet dancers in the world.  The show was organised by a guy named Ivan Putrov, a Ukranian born ballet star, who trained at the Royal Ballet.
I found this article on The Independent website:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/a-great-leap-forward-for-male-dancers-6293562.html
The title of the article is 'A Great Leap Forward For Male Dancers', and the article goes on to explain how females have dominated the ballet scene for many years but now as dance is becoming a lot more popular and also a lot more accepted in England, more and more male ballet dancers are being discovered. 

This isn't the first time that there has been a show devoted to us male dancers, Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake for example and of course one of my favourite West End shows, Billy Elliott, which tells the story of a young boy who wants to dance but hides it from the world, as years ago it wasn't seen as a "manly" thing to do.  I for one can relate to this as growing up I was in exactly the same position.  I loved to dance and although I wanted to do it so bad, there was a little part in side of me that was ashamed of it and wanted to hide it.  The hardest part for me was when it came to P.E. lessons and the teacher would announce to us all....

"You have two choices today, whoever would like to do football go to the right hand side of the sports hall, those of you wanting to do gymnastics and dance go to the left hand side of the hall."

So there I was, left standing in the middle of the hall, while all of the boys ran to the right side and all of the girls ran to the left.  I tried to do football like the other boys at first, but then as I grew older I decided to do what I WANTED to do, not what I felt I should be doing.  So I walked over to the left hand side.  Then came the sniggers and the pointing and the mocking, "GAY BOY!" from the jocks across the room.  It was horrible, and I felt completely isolated from the other guys but once I had started the lesson I realised how much I thoroughly enjoyed it and knew from then on that that would be the choice that I would be making from now on.
I carried on with the dance and gymnastics lessons and worked so hard at it because I wanted to be the best that I could.
One year when I was about 11, my school decided to put on a show and allow all of the pupils to perform and show off whatever skill they thought they had.  I put together a gymnastic/dance piece and thought to myself why not just grab the bull by the horn and show the school what I was made of.  So I did.  It was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life waiting to go on stage infront of all of the big, tough guys that had been laughing at me before but I thought, to hell with it.  I did my routine to the best of my ability, I got some laughs at first but as the routine went on, the other kids began to quieten down and  actually watch what I was doing.  When I came off the stage, my heart was pounding, it felt like it was going to come bursting out of my chest, I was really scared, but part of me was also relieved to just get it out there and show the bullies and the low lifes, 'I don't care what you think of me, no matter how much you taunt me, I'm not going to be a sheep any more and follow the group, I'm going to do what I want to do.'

It has been really interesting for me growing up with dance as literally within the last 10 years, I have been able to really notice peoples attitudes change towards dancing.  When I first started, it wasn't the done thing, but as the years have gone by, show after show, I've had more and more young lads, grown men, fathers and grandfathers come up to me and shake my hand to say "Well done".  It really is nice to feel like the hard work and perseverence has actually paid off.

So to any young boys out there that happen to be reading this and want to dance but feel embarrassed, screw the bullies and the so called "hard nuts", you do what you want to do because it paid off for me and if you stick at it and try your best then it will for you.

If any of you want to see Men In Motion at Sadler's Wells, it's running from the 27th to the 29th January, so get booking.