boysdancetooUK Blog

In this blog post we are going to take a look at the real-life experiences of boys who dance. In particular, do male dancers still face bullying? This is a subject that is close to our hearts, here at boysdancetooUK. 

Sadly, it is a very relevant and important subject, and it does need to be discussed. So why bring it out now? Well, we came across an incredible podcast called 'Movers Shakers Makers',  which is run by the amazing Emma Lister. We found her recent episode entitled 'Ballet for the Twenty First Century - Boys Dance Too' incredibly inspiring and also very thought provoking. We therefore felt that now was the perfect time to share some of our findings from talking to boys who do ballet (and other styles of dance), and we will share the podcast with you at the end of this blog post.

What DO boys wear for ballet?

What on Earth is a DANCE BELT?

Is it the same as a jock strap? And when should a male dancer start wearing one?

Let’s tackle the tricky-one first… what is a dance belt? Well, to put it simply, it’s underwear for male dancers and it’s absolutely vital for ‘keeping things in place’ while dancing. Although it’s sometimes called a jock strap, it’s actually different to a standard jock strap that one might use for sport; a dance belt is padded for comfort and normally has a thong back so that there is clean line from the top of your leg to your foot.

Massage encourages blood circulation to the muscles. Massage strokes create a ‘pumping’ action which encourages blood flow to the area, which helps your body to fix issues and flush out waste products. Becky points out how your instinct when you injure yourself is to ‘rub’ the injured area… So it’s actually part of our natural instinct to massage an injury. The main advantages of Soft Tissue Massage are:

• Reducing muscle aches and pains
• Reducing tension in muscles
• Relieving pain from overuse
• Encouraging flexibility
• Treating soft-tissue injury
• Managing the symptoms of some medical conditions

We couldn’t write a blog post about warming-up, without following with a post about cooling-down. We’ve all been there; it’s the end of class and the teacher or choreographer says “do your own cool-down”… and we all turn around and head straight out of the door, back to our dinner and a hot shower. But I think we can all agree that we regret it the next day when we wake up feeling achy and lethargic, with heavy muscles and lots of knots.

So, how can we cool-down properly and why is it so important?