When you think of boys and dance, you might not automatically think of ballet. But this art and sport might just be a lucrative career choice for young men.
The number of professional ballet opportunities is expected to grow. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall employment of dancers and choreographers is projected to increase by 5% from 2022 to 2032.
Programs like Baltimore Ballet Boys aim to encourage boys to seek these opportunities.
Its founder and executive director, Venesa Day, said the program came in part because her son, Brandon Pigott, first encountered ballet the way many boys do—by seeing a sibling involved and wanting to participate.
“He took to it very quickly and was very graceful,” Day recalls.
Soon, her son auditioned for and was accepted to the TWIGS program with Baltimore School for the Arts. After the audition, “He came out and he was just like, ‘Mommy, I’m gonna be a star,’ and I hadn’t seen him that happy ever,” she says.
This year, Day’s program expanded its offerings to better support the young male dancers of Baltimore City—through life skills training, integrated wellness and internships.
“There’s so much opportunity if they pursue ballet as a career—going to college there are scholarship opportunities,” Day says. “There’s [also] the opportunity to go straight from high school into professional careers.”
Baltimore Ballet Boys provides training through its partnership with Artists U—things like financial literacy, career planning and how to overcome challenges presented in an art career—to ensure boys have what they need to see those opportunities through.
“For young men, with ballet, because there are so few of them, there’s so much opportunity if they pursue ballet as a career,” Day says.
Contrary to what it may appear to be now, ballet, which originated during the Italian Renaissance, was first performed primarily by men. Women wouldn’t begin to take the main stage until nearly 200 years later, before dominating the profession in the 19th century.
Today, according to the latest U.S. Census data from 2022, women make up just over 75% of dancers and choreographers.
While Day’s son flourished in ballet, many boys and young men may not get that chance due to the stigma surrounding male ballet dancers.
“It’s one of those things that people think of as not masculine depending on the type of dance,” Day says. “If you’re a Black young man, there’s a particular stigma around what’s masculine and what’s not.”
Valerie Cheng-Lim and Tim Cheng, parents of a young man who has now danced for 11 years, share their experience with their son, Sage Cheng-Lim, and how they encountered the stigma about boys participating in ballet.
Cheng-Lim recalls questions from family members about why she wanted her son to be able to do ballet.
“We had to explain like, ‘You know, it’s just the basics, it’s fundaments; ballet is still an exercise, it’s still a sport,’” Cheng-Lim says.
Cheng attributes the stigma about boys participating in ballet in part to homophobia and the stereotype that boys who do ballet and dance tend to be gay. However, Cheng says he believes things are changing, and over the last couple of years and society at large has shifted toward being more accepting of men dancing.
“It gave me a nice outlet, in hindsight,” Sage Cheng-Lim says.
Today, Sage Cheng-Lim is 18 and a freshman in college. While he no longer does ballet, he still dances and is pursuing dance as a minor in his studies.
Even if the young men participating in ballet don’t pursue it professionally, Day says the skills they learn and the effects on their health follow them for the rest of their lives.
“It’s an extracurricular activity just like football, baseball—even music,” Day says.
Ballet helps participants develop the physical skills of strength and balance. In fact, NFL superstars such as Steve McLendon have incorporated it into their training regimens. But ballet also benefits young men by instilling in them the values of dedication, being on time and being professional.
Cheng-Lim says enrolling her son in programs like TWIGS, Baltimore Ballet Boys and the Estelle Dennis/Peabody Dance Training Program for Boys benefited him because he got to interact with other boys who also loved dancing.
“I really would like to encourage more parents, more boys, to dance even if they don’t pursue [it] further,” Cheng-Lim says. “I think it’s so cool to see more boys in the studios. There’s so much you can learn from this activity.”
