Men have an advantage in the dance industry
The dance industry is one of the most competitive entertainment fields, and boys and men have the upper hand. Over the past nine years, I have spent countless hours dancing, auditioning and watching performances, and I routinely notice that boys have more opportunities than girls because of how few male competitive dancers there are compared to females.
Throughout the dance season, my studio goes to three different conventions. At conventions, we take classes from professionals from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then compete until 11 p.m. During these classes, we learn a short dance with which we later audition. These auditions are for scholarships and other opportunities within the convention. During the audition, they call about 10 dancers at a time. After everyone has danced, they do callbacks where the people called perform the combination one more time. During callbacks, the auditioner usually says something like, “Ok, now all the boys come out and do it one more time.” This gives all the boys a second chance at the combo, and another opportunity to get noticed for a scholarship. Additionally, the boys often get personalized feedback from the auditioners. A clear advantage and more personalized connections in the industry is therefore given to the boys.
Along with the opportunities at auditions, boys are often more featured than girls in dances. When a choreographer is creating a formation for their dance, boys are often put in the center so that the formation looks symmetrical. Most choreographers do this because boys look different, have different costumes and often do different moves to make their movement more masculine. In addition, boys often get featured roles or parts in dances. For example, if there is a lift or a partnering section, the boy is guaranteed to be featured, when the rest of the girls have to compete for the spot.
The boys are usually assured an important role because there are so few of them. Most competitive dancers are girls, so when there is a guy, they are very likely to be prominent and featured in the dance to show diversity within the choreography. Most of the time, boys are promoted and more encouraged because teachers are desperate to keep them dancing.
This criticism does not undermine how talented and hardworking male dancers are, in fact, some of the best dancers I have seen are guys, but I think they have so much more of an opportunity to succeed and prosper in the industry. I think that the dance industry needs to focus on encouraging all students and not favoring boys. If all students were given equal opportunities, the dance world would be a much fairer place.
