Community members see males benefit from being in ballet

Dance coordinator Katie Behrens has one boy for the Geneva Park District Sunset Dancers' production of "The Nutcracker" this year.

John Schmidt, 10, of Geneva, will perform as the Snow King during the Snowflake Dance. He will be the only boy onstage with 27 girls from age 7 to 13, Behrens said.

“He has been with me probably five years,” Behrens said. “He is in our intermediate advanced ballet class. He does what boys do – he does jumping, and he does a little partnering.”

There’s just not enough boys for all the male roles in the classic Christmas ballet – and not just for the park district’s production, but for others, as well, local dance instructors said.

“I manipulated the story a little more this year,” Behrens said. “Getting 10- and 12-year-old little girls to play an old uncle is beyond difficult.”

So, where are all the boys in ballet? Probably steering clear because it’s perceived – wrongly – as a girl thing, instructors and parents said.

“I believe there is still a stigma that only girls can dance ballet and only girls should take dance classes,” Behrens said. “I think there is this perception that ballet dancers are not manly. Real boys do ballet.”

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Ashlie Andersen, director of State Street Dance Studio in Geneva, has seven boys out of 100 cast members in "The Fox Valley Nutcracker" production – and she's thrilled to have so many.

“It’s not considered manly,” Andersen said, noting that’s not what she believes about boys in dance. “It’s kind of how our society views it as well. It’s a stigma.”

Andersen said older male ballet dancers have to jump, but they also have to be strong enough to lift the female dancers.

“Dancing as males requires a lot of strength, skill and agility. … Male dancers have to build the strength to lift someone,” Andersen said. “Their jobs are to make it look effortless and to make it look beautiful on stage for audiences to enjoy.”

Athan Laden, 6, of Wayne, is one of the seven males in State Street’s production, and this will be his third year performing in “The Nutcracker.” This year, he will be a little boy and a mouse soldier.

“When you ask Athan why there’s not more boys in dance, he says, ‘Boys just don’t get it; they do not realize it’s [a] sport. Dancing is so fun. You get to perform and have fun with your friends,’ ” said his mother, Tara Avram.

Her son has been in ballet for three years, and tap and jazz for two years each, Avram said.

“He is not fazed by being the youngest or by being the only boy,” Avram said. “He is dancing with girls who are three to eight inches taller than him, and he loves it. He follows the beat of him own drum.”

John Schmidt is unfazed about being the only boy in the Geneva Park District production of “The Nutcracker,” as his father, Brian Schmidt explained.

“He’s been interested in music ever since he was a little bitty kid,” Brian Schmidt said. “We looked for musical things he might be interested in, so ballet is a natural extension of that.”

Another benefit of ballet is learning to follow a complex set of instructions in an activity without winners or losers, Brian Schmidt​ said.

“The outcome is a performance,” he said. “The quality is determined by effort. You can’t ‘lose’ your recital.”

A fifth-grader at Williamsburg Elementary School in Geneva, John Schmidt has other interests, his father said – wrestling, competitive cross-country bike riding, playing drums and chess.

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Jack Gerling, 16, of Sugar Grove, has studied at Salt Creek Ballet in Westmont for six years, commuting 45 minutes a day, six days a week, for classes and rehearsals that can last anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 1/2 hours.

This month, he will perform in a major role as the Nutcracker Prince, dancing with Princess Clara, in “The Nutcracker.”

“When you’re 4 … [you’re] not doing a whole lot that’s different from the girls, learning basic things. As you get older, you start learning things that are more masculine and more important as a male dancer,” Gerling said. “Guys have a very important role in ballet.”

Gerling also works out – as do many other male dancers – to develop the upper body strength needed to lift the girls and the strong legs to jump and lift, Gerling said.

“I think one of the main barriers to boys in dance is the current perception of men who dance – by those not familiar with the dance world – as grown men in tights. If they could see what these men can really do, the amazing impressive capabilities that they have, they might change their mind of just how impressive male dancers can be.”

His father, Keith Gerling, said in the world outside of the U.S., there are plenty of boys in dance.

“It’s a societal thing,” Keith Gerling said. “This culture thinks it’s too foo foo, I guess.”

Keith Gerling said the most important job for the male dancer is to inspire confidence in the ballerina so she can dance on pointe, jump and turn and know her partner has her back.

“Most of the eyes will be on this lovely woman in this beautiful tutu, and he has got to be her rock,” Keith Gerling said. “He has to be an oak tree. When I give my son a hug, he’s like a tree; he’s solid. What they teach in ballet is core strength.”

Although "The Nutcracker" performances by the Beth Fowler School of Dance in St. Charles and DeKalb have about seven boys in each show, with 400 total performers between the two shows, Beth Fowler said she attracts many boys to dance in other musicals.

Fowler invites the boys to participate for free in musicals like “West Side Story” or “Grease” and has had whole football teams turn out.

To be clear, rehearsal time is free, lessons are not, Fowler said.

“I have had wonderful luck with the boys,” Fowler said. “First, you have the girls who are friends with the high school boys and they want to be part of something. We had about 50 boys do ‘West Side Story.’ ”

Her productions are dance only, without singing or dialog, she said.

“It gives girls a chance to do partnering work, so in a company of 25 girls, I get 25 boys to go with them, so 100 percent of the girls get the experience of partnering,” Fowler said. “What people ask is, ‘How many years have these guys been dancing?’ I say, ‘Three months.’ ”

OUTBOX #1

Upcoming productions of ‘The Nutcracker’

• Sunset Dancers' Winter Recital:12:30 and 1:30 p.m. Dec. 20, in the Geneva High School auditorium, 416 McKinley Ave., Geneva. Tickets are $8 each. More information at 630-232-4542.

• State Street Dance Studio: 2 and 7 p.m. Nov. 28 and 2 p.m. Nov. 29, at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre, 1201 Main St., Batavia. Tickets cost $25 to $35 for general admission, and $20 to $30 for children 10 and younger. To buy tickets, visit www.foxvalleynutcracker.com or call 630-937-8930.

• Beth Fowler School of Dance: 7 p.m. Dec. 12 and 2 p.m. Dec. 13, at St. Charles North High School, 255 Red Gate Road, St. Charles. Tickets are available online at bethfowlerschoolofdance.com, costing $20 for adults and $15 for children 12 and younger until Nov. 30. Tickets bought on or after Dec. 1 will be $22 for adults and $17 for children 12 and younger. Other performance dates have been scheduled in DeKalb.

• Salt Creek Ballet: 1 and 5 p.m. Nov. 28 and 1 p.m. Nov. 29 at Hinsdale Central High School. Tickets start at $15 and are available online at saltcreekballet.org. Other performance dates have been scheduled in the region.