In my 13 years of teaching I have never had a boy in ballet class older than age 6. I am delighted that this year I now have a first year 12 year old boy signed up for one of my ballet classes (and none of the other teachers at the studio have ever had a male student for ballet either). Because I've never had to teach a male dancer before I am not exactly sure what is appropriate for him to be learning. So far he's been doing everything that the girls have been working on at barre and center (they are all first year dancers). Is there anything in particular that I should be focusing on with him or anything steps/techniques that he shouldn't be learning due to gender? I've avoided working on bourree across the floor and doing combinations in center that have bourree turns with that class because I didn't want him to feel embarrassed about doing something that mainly female dancers do. What would I have him do in place of that? Any suggestions/advice would be HUGELY appreciated!

Tours en l'air.
Big jumps.
Conditional jumps (so many jumps he really has to fight to do them all: 132 or 264).
Fouettes with a straight leg a la seconde.
Pirouettes starting from grand plié or second position.
Use slower music for petit allegro. His male muscles can handle that better.

Not to flowy arms.
Not to detailed fingers, because it soon looks feminish. A bit rough hands is okay for boys.
Girls = shoulders down. Boys = shoulders NOT down, but the normal level or even lift a little to make him look bigger, wider.

When the girls put on their pointeshoes, you can work with him.
Or at the end of the class, give him some manege work to do. Once he knows what to do, two minutes can be enough.
Also let him do push-ups and once he has a certain level in that, let him lift girls. Just straight up and down.

When the girls do bourres have him work on his ballet walk or pas marche or another movement step...

Jumps
Jumps
Jumps

Did I say jumps?

Be very aware of making his arm placement and movement different than that of the girls...it should be masculine and too much time watching the girls can eke femininity into his movements.

Make sure that the tempo of the music in allegro (both petit and grand) is slow enough for him to fly.

And yes, push ups are a must. While the girls put on their pointe shoes and get a drink is a perfect time.

He is a beginner, so good basic fundamentals needed, just like in the girls work. articulating the feet properly--I have found boys don't point their feet very well. Upper body held very strong--like in character national work. Yes, lots of jumps. I also find that boys like to be challenged and are highly competitive with each other (so if you can get another boy in his class, all the better) They also like to have goals to meet to keep their interest.

I usually work on alignment - shoulder blades down, ears over shoulders, ribs over pelvis.. the usual.

Also do things where he has to go "through" the foot; half-point, full point, etc. (the girls should be doing that, too)

I agree about the port de bras being a bit "stronger" for him. You can remind him that his arms move because they are pushing away the air, which is VERY thick.


You can start fairly early with exercises for battus. (not battus themselves, just the exercises for them)
I sometimes also give the guys something such as "roll" onto the floor or something like that.

He is only 12, so he has probably not gone through his second growth-spurt yet. Work on coordination. When he is in the growth spurt, then work more on stamina. Boys are good at that.
Building pure strength may not be that easy for him until he is nearly finished growing.

-ginger-

I assume he is also a beginner?
If so, then all your technical knowledge/skills should be handled the same as the girls. Physiologically at around 12 both genders should roughly still be about the same.

A few things though:
It is agood idea to give him a little (at this stage) of the two basic "male" ballet needs and they are turns (pirouettes (any) and basic jumps - changements, echappe saute to 2nd, tours etc. If the girls do 8 changements get him to do 16 or place him beside a girl with a good jump and encourage him to jump higher than her. Try to get him to hold 5th in echappe saute as long as he can to help him with his tour en lair position but tell him this! From babies to adults boys like to know and need to know that they are boys (regardless of any sexual identification-gay)

With all my boys (from 5 yrs of age) i try to add something at either the beginning or end of the exercise (unless it is a boys exercise) to make them feel that everything is not just for the girls. So for eg. a class might be doing a plie exercise at the barre (any exercise) and i will tell the boys that this is how they finish and it might simply be to turn and lift the head into the middle or centre of the room or perhaps to feel like a soldier or a gladiator or a police man etc depending on the age of the boy.

This way you tend to keep boys much longer and they encourage other lads to join!

As students learn by observation, copying and repetition, my most important advice i can offer to you is to try not to allow the boy to become too feminine. He will copy you and if you demonstrate to the girls to be "soft and sweet" all the time - he will by human nature "copy" and become this. If you demonstrate an arabesque arm to be soft as in the romantic period he will simply copy either you or all the other girls and henceforth the "feminine" look.
Get the girls to do soft arms if that what is called for but try to encourage the boy not to do it in this fashion, perhaps to extend the arms more making them long and more "masculine" tell him he has to be the Prince in Nutcracker and they do it like this (and demonstrate) or when doing balance's and the girls do their arms in 3rd get him to have one hand on his hip or have straight arms and use epaulement.

As an educator of many many boys who from 12 start full time training, the hardest single thing to change are their arms and sadly 90% of boys who have not had any male teachers are far too soft with their arms and in a lot of cases their appearances. Once again this is not a sexual identity issue as they could be very straight but a teaching issue.

From a Physiological and bio-mechanical point the arms are the co-ordinators of the dancer and they are the Hardest to "fix or correct" and the most frustrating!

So enjoy your boy and i hope he flourishes under your wing (so to speak)

Cheers

Mr_B

Thanks so much for all the tips and advice! I had a long chat with him and his mom after class last night about class and expectations and things that he could work on that the girls wouldn't necessarily be doing with him every week. He's very comfortable that he is the only boy in the class and understands that when I give him specific things to do it's not because I'm singling him out for doing things incorrectly. That was something that I was worried about... I didn't want him getting frustrated because I was always telling him to do this or that differently or making him do more reps of jumps, etc. I excited about teaching him and watching him grow into a strong dancer! Again thanks for your advice and keep it coming!

Sounds like you have it all under control and i am happy for you.
If you have any specific quesions please email me.
Many Cheers and again lots of enjoyable teaching.

Mr_B