Virginia Haworth-Galt says that fresh approaches do work in getting boys involved in arts activity.
In the youth arts field some things are implicitly accepted; boys don?t dance (much) is one such. Some youth arts projects may not be directly aimed at boys and young men but you know that they are going to appeal: I'm referring to music, DJing, digital stuff involving complicated kit and the youth-culture end of youth arts featuring skateboards and graffiti. Of course, these are generalisations and many girls and young women are also interested in these activities, but it is certainly true that if you publicise an out-of-school contemporary dance project you?re unlikely to achieve an equal gender balance.
Young men engage in a different way with the arts than young women. The reasons are varied and, again, can often only be assessed generally and stereotypically. Young men may be more easily distracted by outside influences and peer pressure. Across artforms they are recognised as having less focus. There is immediacy about the way that young men tend to engage in projects. They seem to need obvious and tangible results swiftly in order to sustain their commitment and interest in a project. Young women are better at projecting further ahead and visualising medium- and long-term results. Young men have high expectations of what they would like to achieve and want to have something that they perceive as ?professional? ? something high quality that they recognise as being as good as the work produced by the experts they admire. A failure to get rapid results or, worse still, producing something that they consider to be inferior or amateur can quickly discourage some young men. This can increase feelings of low self-esteem and prevent them from wanting to participate in other opportunities. In short, young women are about the process and young men are about the product.
So what is it about dance in particular that is not appealing to boys and young men? It still seems to be down to the old stereotype that dancing is for girls. This fear operates on two levels. The first one is about gender identification, and the need to ensure that you are putting across the right masculine messages. Second, there is a fear that if you do turn up to a dance class or project you may be the only male there ? which, no matter how secure about your masculinity you are, is still quite daunting.
How do we overcome these barriers? Dance companies and initiatives have had success in repackaging dance to boys and young men. Dance that ties in martial arts is increasingly popular. Hip-hop and street dance are seen as acceptable male dance forms, often having the added frisson of competitive display. Some companies use this as a basis and then build contemporary choreography on top of it. Some companies, like Random Dance Company, have utilised animation software to generate choreographic materials. The use of IT has proved successful in attracting boys to dance lessons.
The Laban Centre, in South London, has secured almost £100,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for a three-year project to try and encourage more boys and young men to take part in dance activity. The aim is to get more boys dancing in general, in the hope that some will seek careers in dance. The ?Boys Project? started in September 2004 and is working with 8?22 year olds divided into three groups. Starting with taster workshops and weekly lessons, core groups of regular attenders have built up. These are now encouraging new people to attend. The Laban has worked in partnership with Forest Hill Secondary School out-of-school club to build up a group of 24 boys aged 12?15. Niki Lavithis from Laban says that through ongoing work with the boys they hope to open their eyes and broaden their horizons to new dance style beyond the visible twin peaks of street dance and ballet. By taking a fresh approach, some of the generalisations can be subverted and boys can get dancing.
Artswork is an independent youth arts development agency. e: virginia@artswork.demon.co.uk; w: http://www.artswork.org.uk