Breaking ballet stereotypes
Published 6:00 pm Sunday, September 22, 2019
Boys take up the challenge
Ginger Broomes / Special to American Press
A remark by Lara Spencer, a correspondent on “Good Morning, America,” set off an online debate in August and caused a massive “dance-off” protest in New York City. The comment was in response to a story about Prince George taking ballet classes as part of his curriculum, where, the protesters said, she seemed to laugh and dismiss males in ballet.
“Oh, he looks so happy about the ballet class,” Spencer said on the show. “Prince William said Prince George absolutely loves ballet … I have news for you, Prince William, we’ll see how long that lasts.”
Spencer later apologized, but more than 300 dancers still took to Times Square the day of her apology, including dancers and choreographers from television shows such as “So You Think You Can Dance.”
In Lake Charles, Stacy Mitchell, a mother of four, began receiving texts the same day from friends about the show. Since two of her children were in ballet, her friends wanted to know what she thought.
“I hadn’t seen the show, so I had to go back and watch it,” she said. “It didn’t surprise me.”
Four years ago, when one of Mitchell’s daughters began taking ballet classes, she also encouraged her son, Avery — then 8 — to try it. With his tall, thin build and disciplined attitude, she thought it was something he would enjoy.
“At first, he wasn’t sure,” she said. “He thought it’d be weird, you know, a bunch of girls. I said, ‘Just try it for a year, if you hate it you never have to go back.’ “
Within three months, he had quit both basketball and baseball, adding extra dance classes and signing up for Tae Kwon Do.
“He was completely hooked and now dances four days a week for two to four hours a day. He’s all in.”
At age 12, Avery is now in his fourth year of ballet training at Lake Charles Dance Academy, taking intensive courses during the summer and competing earlier this year at the Youth America Grand Prix in Houston. He continues the Tae Kwon Do classes because his mother said they tend to use a lot of the same skills — flexibility, rhythm and discipline.
The day of Spencer’s comment, Mitchell said she asked her son what he thought about it.
“That’s not very surprising, but that’s cool that people are talking about it,” he replied.
“Boys in the arts — and in the South even more so — not as much support,” Mitchell said. “But I think that’s changing. When you mention ballet, people think of little girls in tutus. That in itself can be discouraging to boys. It’s not normalized, which is crazy to me because it’s so athletic.”
For years, professional athletes have been taking ballet as part of their training, and, according to a 2013 ESPN article profiling cross-training techniques used by NFL players, the moves required in ballet strengthen the lower body, particularly ankles and feet, making athletes less prone to injury on the field.
“There’s a lot more conventional sports people that took dance … Michael Jordan took dance,” Mitchell said. “It’s very beneficial if you want to do a different path of athletics. I wish more parents would consider it.”
Avery said he agrees.
“It’s just physically challenging, and it’s fun,” Avery said. “I do want to make a career out of it.”
Avery said he sees himself continuing, and excelling, in ballet.
“It’s so strange when I tell people my son is a ballet dancer,” Mitchell said. “Ninety-five percent of the time people say, ‘What does your husband think about it?’ And it’s so funny, because when he played basketball, no one asked what my husband thought.”
Mitchell said it’s important to her and her husband, Keith, that their kids are able to find something they really love.
“And I think it’s really good to have other adults in their lives that they learn from, listen to and respect and don’t want to disappoint.”
Colleen Cannon Benoit, founder and director of Lake Charles Dance Academy, said she has seen an increase in boys’ attendance since founding the school nine years ago. She has five male dancers ranging from first grade to high school.
“As a male dancer, your opportunities are greatly increased because there aren’t the numbers in dance as there are women,” Benoit said. “Your potential to earn scholarships and be accepted to prestigious schools is way greater.”
Benoit said each of her male students has a unique story.
One student, James Klump, got into ballet after his sister picked it up. He’s an avid competition-level archer. Another student, Andrew Berken, had tried all the sports his large family could provide, before finding his niche in ballet around age 13-14.
“I think the guys find out that it’s not so easy; that it’s way harder than it looks,” Benoit said. “It’s a challenge for them, and they are given the opportunity to shine.”
Benoit said her belief is the discipline required of dance will help a student as they grow, no matter the career path the student chooses. Children learn teamwork, develop creative thinking skills and the ability to push themselves to higher achievements, she said.
When her dancers reach certain levels, she said she encourages them to apply for intensive summer courses outside of Lake Charles. Dancers audition in different cities, and if accepted, most apply for scholarships to attend because the classes can be up to $1,000 per week.
“The males in general, will get a scholarship,” she said. “I had two dancers attend program with the Oklahoma City Ballet this year.”
Benoit said she’d had 15-20 professional ballet schools accepting her students for their summer training programs, including the American Ballet in New York City and the Boston Ballet.
The Lake Charles Dance Academy also offers their own intensive summer programs, and just finished one taught by Jeff Lyons, a lifelong ballet dancer who began ballet training in Lake Charles at 11, and is now on staff with the San Francisco Ballet.
“Back then, (in Lyons’ time), it was even harder for men,” Benoit said. “I would say it’s a great time for men now because society is more accepting of differences. It’s perfect timing for a guy to jump in and try it. I’m really super proud that these guys don’t let it bother them.”
Stacy Mitchell said she has told her son that if ballet or dance is what he wants to do as a career, she will support him, but even if not ballet is still giving him skills that will take him further in life.
“You can’t just skip to the head of the line (in ballet), you have to master each step. And that’s a good lesson to learn, how to kind of be bad at something until you’re good at it,” she said. “I’ve found that kids seem to be a lot more receptive to it than adults are — it seems to be a generational thing. Something was mentioned about him doing ballet and all of these older kids were like, ‘This was cool, you don’t hear too many people doing that,’ which was touching to me.”
Avery said he doesn’t think being a male ballet dancer is that big of a deal — much in the way Spencer’s comments didn’t seem to faze him. He said he thinks any talk about the art is good.
“At the studio, we need more boys,” he said. “Most of the stuff for boys is free or really cheap.”
If there were one thing he could let other boys know?
“I would say, yes, definitely, if another kid wants to try, they need to try it.”
Avery Mitchell, 12, of Lake Charles, gets help from teacher Jeff Lyons, a lifelong ballet dancer, at Lake Charles Dance Academy.
Avery Mitchell, center, stands with fellow LCDA students, Eian McManus and Andrew Berken.
Andrew Berkin and Avery Mitchell are two male dancers who take classes at the Lake Charles Dance Academy.
