Billy Elliott, as performed by David Alvarez (Photo: http://www.billyelliottour.com/us-tour)

For reasons surely rooted in rather silly gender expectations and stereotyping, boys typically do not dance. Call it the Billy Elliott Dilemma: If you actually want to dance, make sure that you hide it.

Andrew Swensen discusses the world of dance, the nature of artistic voice, and half of the population that has been kept out of a world of artistic expression because of gender stereotypes, in his article “Boys, Dance and Gender Stereotypes” (click link to read the full article)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (http://www.alvinailey.org/)

The performing arts have an energy born of the instant, born of the dynamism between artist and audience on any given night. Yes, their ephemeral quality invests them with urgency and tension, because the art work is happening in real time right before your eyes.

For a variety of reasons, I would argue that dance stands apart as the most dependent on the ephemeral for its distinct beauty and impact. Dance is art of the ephemeral, beauty that must be seized in an instant, and that is precisely part of its genius and its unique place among the arts.

Click here to read the full text of our latest article from The Muse Dialogue, “Dance, Sand Mandala of the Arts.“