The focus of this article is what can be done to encourage
boys to take up dance.
It discusses briefly the gender issues around dance and sets
out suggestions to make dance more appealing to the male psyche: .
- De-feminisation of the surroundings
- Advertising targeting boys i.e. pictures showing males
- Specifically gearing learning to suit the male genre classes i.e. hip hop etc.
- Adapting teaching styles to suit a male genre
- Use of partnering elements to classes
- Re-iterating athletic activity involved
Interstingly, it notes the positive effect having classes targeting
boys learning styles have on the girls, preventing them from becoming
one-dimensional dancers.
"young women are sometimes surprised when, as college
students they are expected to be fierce powerful dancers. In many dance studios I've found that,
starting at a very young age, the physicality of movement is limited to what is
considered feminine, pretty, or sexy"
In my opinion the article, whilst addressing the need to encourage boys into
the dance class, lacked depth and research to back up the theories it outlined.
It is interesting to compare the article written by Doug Risner (see literature review 2), who refutes, the notion that boys respond to a
dance class associated with sport and athleticism and that actually boys wanted the same
from a dance class as girls, performance, self-expression and creativity.
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