This Trans Boy Dances: An Introduction

Welcome to Trans Boys Can Dance!

I'm Sam, a newly-out transgender boy and let me tell you something about me- I love ballet. I'm obsessed! For the past few months I've been pirouetting around my living room, arabesque-ing as I fill the dishwasher, and practicing my pliés as I study. Somehow, my entire life has started to revolve around ballet and just yesterday, after six months of begging and nagging and searching around, I attended my first ever ballet class. It was amazing. After that, I've decided that my silly little dreams could become very real.

I desperately want to become a professional dancer. A late-starter, transgender ballet dancer with a cause- sounds impossible, doesn't it? It did to me at first (when I was still sane!) but now I've embraced the idea. Who cares if it turns out to be impossible? There are plenty of people who've been dancing since the age of three, perfect bodies practically made for ballet, who give up due to the pressure. I'm going to try my hardest and nobody is going to get in my way! Gender non-conforming people of the world- watch out, because I'm here to represent!

As far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong) there has never been a professional classical ballet dancer who is transgender at the time of dancing. Maybe there are a few who've transitioned afterwards, but I've never heard of a performing trans classical ballet dancer who doesn't dance for humour like some kind of zoo animal for cis people to laugh at. I want to be the first serious trans ballet dancer in the world.

Now for some background information about me. I'm sixteen years old in a relatively low-income family in Ireland, basically meaning: I'm too late to be a dancer, I can't afford to be a dancer, and there's nowhere to get good ballet classes! That's what I thought it meant, at least. I found a class about half an hour away from me which was willing to take an older beginner into the Intermediate class (RAD syllabus). Classes are pretty cheap, about ten euro per week, and the teachers are fantastic. I'm on my way!

There will be a post up later about my first class and also some tips on starting ballet as a late beginner. If anyone is in a similar dance situation as me or even just has some tips for a boy who dances, please feel free to pass them along in the comments! While I've been looking for tips over the past few months, one of the things that really got me through were the fantastic comments from the ballet community on all sorts of posts. Please share what you can with the community!

Thank you all so much for reading my silly little bog post- it means a lot!

-Sam