About:
Boys at the Barre has been a little seed that’s been growing in my brain for a number of years.
You see, it’s pretty tricky being a young boy in the dance world – you go to dance shops and they’re packed with beautiful dance kit and merchandise for girls, but there’s rarely anything for boys!
Our Goals:
Encourage and empower young boys
It’s always been a dream of mine to get more young boys into dancing and I hope with “Boys at the Barre” I can do my bit by empowering young boys to stay dancing!
Create more Options for male dancers
In the future I wish to create my own dance wear brand to get away from the boring norms of men’s dance wear and create bold and exiting options for men!
Make male dance related apparel more accessible to young boys
As a young child I never had any clothing to express my love for dance; hence with creation of “Boys at the Barre” I aim to encourage young boys to be proud of their dancing and their unique ability.
My Inspiration:
Imagine my disappointment when, one Christmas, I was allowed to go into a big dance shop in London with some spending money, only to find absolutely nothing for boys. We weren’t put off, and went to a second shop, where we found a couple of plain white boys leotards and blue dance shorts, but nothing exciting or worthy of me spending my beloved Christmas money on!
Eventually, we found a couple of things in a third store, but the selection was very limited still, and the male shop attendant apologetically explained that there wasn’t really much for boys… Ten years later and here we are, a young company with the aim of preventing any future young male dancers from having that same disappointing shopping experience.
Matthew’s Story…
It’s funny how a single moment can change the course of your entire life….
I was 3 years old when I walked into the room and saw ballet for the first time. My mum was ironing and wasn’t really watching but when she went to change the channel I wouldn’t let her, I sat transfixed watching the whole performance. As it finished, I immediately declared:
“Mummy, I want to do that. I want to pick up the girls like them…”
Eventually Mum gave in to my nagging, and I attended weekly ballet classes at a local village hall. I was the only boy there but I fell in love with dance and began to take examinations and attend dance workshops.
Many of my school friends had sisters in the same ballet school, so for the most part, at primary school, my ballet was just accepted - it helped that dancing had made me strong and very fit, so I was good at other sports too!
Later I attended an all boys high school, where some pupils were less open minded, and I did experience some teasing and bullies, but thankfully I had an incredible ring of support around me. As years went by I stopped keeping ballet a secret and began to ‘own it’, blocking out unwelcome comments. When I chose ballet as one of my sports for my GCSE PE course, the class responded in true teenage boy style with a flurry of adolescent sniggers … but soon the teasing stopped. Eventually I even felt comfortable enough to invite some of the boys to come and watch my shows - they sat in the audience waiting nervously in anticipation of my big lifts and have been unwavering in their support as I’ve moved into professional dancing.
As I turned 16 I realised that all I wanted to do was dance. It should have been a difficult choice between dance and a more academic pathway as school came relatively easily to me, but there was never any question about what I wanted to do next.
I was fortunate enough to receive offers from several dance schools, but I fell in love with Northern Ballet School – it just felt like home to me from the very first class in the audition. I feel very lucky to have spent the 3 years learning, living and working amongst some amazing friends, being taught by incredible teachers and slowly but surely stepping closer to achieving my dreams of a professional dance career.
