BalletBoyz Marks 25 Years with Tour as Male Dancing Gains Acceptance

William Trevitt, founder of BalletBoyz, has long disliked the company's name. "We always thought BalletBoyz was a really stupid name. We wanted not to be BalletBoyz," he said. The BBC coined the tag after former Royal Ballet dancers Trevitt and Michael Nunn filmed a cheeky backstage documentary at London's Royal Opera House. Their casual charm drew fans, and the name stuck when they launched their all-male troupe, starting with two and expanding to 10 men.

The name evoked Chippendales comparisons. "We had a theatre manager coming and saying: 'Could you ask the dancers to take their shirts off in the second act?'" Trevitt recalled. BalletBoyz begins a tour this month for its 25th anniversary. Over two and a half decades, Nunn and Trevitt boosted the image of men dancing, though they included women in shows and focused on quality dance, not statements. Trevitt described their work as "two matching energies and exploring the balance between them."

Around the time of their documentaries, the 2000 film Billy Elliot depicted a miner's son pursuing dance and leaping into Matthew Bourne's all-male Swan Lake. The story became a long-running musical with a new national tour this autumn. This sparked the "Billy Elliot effect," with rumors that boys once outnumbered girls auditioning for Royal Ballet School.

Layton Williams, who played the ninth stage Billy Elliot and reached Strictly Come Dancing finals with Nikita Kuzmin, said, "It’s cool to dance now, isn’t it." His nephew dances on TikTok with friends despite being a "proper lad." Peter Darling, choreographer for the Billy Elliot film and musical, saw more boys and talent at recent tour auditions. "When we started auditioning for the musical, five years on from the film, we found one ballet dancer," he said. "But cut to 2026 and we were auditioning for the tour, there are boys doing ballet, boys doing contemporary dance."

Nunn noted persistent stigma. Stats show mixed trends. Royal Ballet Lower School saw boys' applications rise 227% from 1999-2000 to pre-Covid peak, but girls rose 349%. The International Dance Teachers Association recorded more boys in exams from 2005, then a drop post-Covid. International Society of Teachers of Dancing exams average 3 to 4% male candidates yearly.

Post-Covid, fewer young boys joined after tagging along to sisters' classes, which moved online. School arts cuts, with GCSE dance entrants down 60% since 2008 and halved at A-level due to Stem focus, hurt numbers. Laura Nicholson of One Dance UK said boys remain underrepresented, but the gap widened with school dance declines from EBacc and Progress 8 measures. Committed boys often progress, especially in all-male groups.

BalletBoyz took dancers into schools for workshops. "That definitely does work to get boys into dance," Nunn said. He started at 14 after a school ballet trip, hiding tap classes from south London friends because ballet seemed effeminate. He found ballet tremendously challenging. Their boys' group ran until Covid. "Fifteen years of going into schools and we thought the ball was rolling," Nunn said. "It may have stopped rolling," Trevitt added.

Kevin Young joined dance after a BalletBoyz workshop in 2000s Glasgow. A counselor suggested dance college over PE teaching. He auditioned in football shorts, excelling at Michael Jackson moves as the only boy. He hid it as breakdancing. Now a Royal Academy of Dance teacher, Young sees change. "It’s become more socially acceptable to dance," he said. "Twenty years ago I would have had one boy in my class, now I’ve got six or seven."

Certain styles still face resistance. One boy skipped a Bob Fosse piece, fearing his dad's reaction. Young replied, "Just because you’re moving in a different way doesn’t make you any less masculine." The boy returned apologetic. "What is it about a man standing in first position that is threatening?" Darling asked. "It’s insane."

BalletBoyz shows short films before performances to demystify dance. "They know then that it’s going to be entertaining, it’s not going to be medicine," Trevitt said. Diversity's 2009 Britain's Got Talent win inspired boys. Ashley Banjo, between gigs on their 60-date tour, faced school teasing for dancing over football. Street dance helped, but he owned it.

Banjo judged Got to Dance from 2009 to 2014. Now TikTok dominates. "Some of the biggest TikTok and Instagram creators are dancers," he said. "Dance is associated more heavily with TikTok than with the Royal Ballet." Viral dances boost songs to Top 10, Young added. Tom Holland, ex-Billy Elliot and Spider-Man star, dances fouettés and in fishnets online.

Williams varied looks on Strictly to show diverse masculinity. "There are many ways to be a dancer and be a man." He and Kuzmin advanced norms; BalletBoyz commissioned a 2007 tango from Craig Revel Horwood, rejected for Strictly as two men. "Follower!" Nunn laughed.