My dad cannot see me on stage doing this': will the stigma around boys who dance ever shift?

"We always thought BalletBoyz was a really stupid name. We wanted not to be BalletBoyz. says William Trevitt, founder of the company called, guess what, BalletBoyz. It was the BBC that landed them with that tag, when then-Royal Ballet dancers Trevitt and Michael Nunn made a cheeky and revealing backstage documentary at London's Royal Opera House. Their knockabout, laddish charm won them fans, and when they went on to found their own company, first the two of them, later expanded to 10 men, the name stuck."

"It does carry a slight hint of the Chippendales about it. We had a theatre manager coming and saying: Could you ask the dancers to take their shirts off in the second act?' remembers Trevitt. Which may say something about the expectations of a group of men dancing. BalletBoyz is heading out on tour this month to celebrate its 25th anniversary."

"In those two-and-a-half decades, Nunn and Trevitt have done a lot for the image of men dancing (they have had women in their shows over the years, too, it must be said). It was never their intention to make a statement, it was always just about great dance, but still, here were two straight men who danced together and later a whole company of young men and commissioned a new repertoire that wasn't about romantic partnering, but two matching energies and exploring the balance between them, as Trevitt puts it."

"Around the same time Nunn and Trevitt were making their video diaries, another iconic male dancer spun into view. The film Billy Elliot came out in 2000, the story of the miner's son who wanted to dance, and by the moving final scene was leaping into choreographer Matthew Bourne's pioneering Swan Lake with its cast of all-male swans. The film was turned into a multi-award-winning musical that's still going strong, with a new national tour opening this autumn."

BalletBoyz originated from a cheeky backstage documentary made by Royal Ballet dancers William Trevitt and Michael Nunn at London’s Royal Opera House, which led to the name sticking. The company later expanded from the two founders to a group of 10 men, and the name carried a hint of the Chippendales. Trevitt recalls theatre managers expecting dancers to remove shirts in performances, reflecting assumptions about male dance audiences. Over 25 years, Nunn and Trevitt have shaped the image of men dancing while also including women in shows. Their work focused on great dance and commissioned repertoire exploring matching energies and balance rather than romantic partnering. Around the same time, Billy Elliot and Matthew Bourne’s all-male Swan Lake helped broaden public perception of male dance, and Billy Elliot became a long-running musical with a new tour.

Read at www.theguardian.com