Dear Readers,

Firstly, apologies for being silent for 2 months! There are lots of things happening at the moment in both BWB world and my world (RAD Ballet teaching certificate studies!)

This month, I wanted to talk about dance and men!

Usually we always see those little girls in their tutus or the picture perfect moment of a ballerina mid grand jete. But what about the men!

Dance culture in Australia is fairly niche - but it is even more niche for the men. In a sports dominated society where a beer and footy rule, it is hard to make room for other activities. That is not to say that football, and sport in general is a bad thing; it is the stereotypes, gender bias and lack of encouragement for boys to take up dance that is a problem.

Some of the most important things that ballet (and all partner dancing) can bring is to teach boys/men respect for women, not be afraid of physical contact that is not sexual, learn to read body ques and become familiar with their own bodies.

There has also been recent articles on football players, professional boxers and other male athletes taking ballet class to improve in their sport.

To finish, here is a great example of the benefits of dance in an otherwise very sporty, blokey culture.

A friend of mine was telling me that his kids (who go to a private North Shore, sports dominated school), got a new Principal. She introduced a series of ballroom dancing classes to change dynamics, get the boys to be respectful to girls and generally shake things up!

Of course there was resistance, and some boys didn't hold the girls hand for 3 weeks. But a few weeks into it and especially during the performance, things really changed. It changed the boys views, the parents views and nudged the culture of the school into a new and exciting direction. In a nutshell, they all loved it!