WE have a problem. There are not enough male dancers, particularly ballet dancers. While the numbers have upped and downed over the years, little has changed: the number of boys taking up ballet remains very small. In Australia, it is possibly getting smaller.
Males have the same impulse to move to music as females – little boys still love to dance around the loungeroom just like their sisters.”
The anecdotal evidence is that even our elite schools are finding it harder than ever to attract boys. The 12-14-year-old Boy’s Dance Championship at the Sydney Eisteddfod has been discontinued because of “insufficient entries”. At a professional level things are similar. For example, the West Australian Ballet’s three male soloists are all from Cuba. Why? “Because I couldn’t find them here,” artistic director Aurelien Scannella says. “In Australia, and particularly in Perth, male dancers are a rare species. It’s difficult. I don’t really know the reason why; maybe because to be a professional male ballet dancer in Australia is not seen as a real job.”
Scannella is right, but the issue goes
