A TEAM of Glasgow students have launched a campaign to get men dancing professionally.
Just one in 12 students at Dance Studio Scotland, based in Glasgow Clyde College, are male.
The PR students now hope to spark another Billy Elliot effect with their #MenDance2 and #DareToDance project.
The feel-good 2000 movie about an 11-year-old boy who becomes a professional ballet dancer inspired a flurry of boys to apply for ballet and dance courses, and wannabe professional dancers face a dazzling future, just like Billy.
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Spearheading the campaign, student Ryan Gilmour said: “We all believe that the course and the cause are well worth it, we also hope that more men will join the course as they are truly missing out on the chance of a lifetime.”
Maxine Railton, Senior Lecturer for Dance Studio Scotland at Glasgow Clyde College, added: “The career possibilities for male dancers with talent are endless.”
Students on the dance course have admitted they have had to deal with bullies because they study dance – but they don’t let it get to them.
Kern Douglas, 22, from Strathaven, Lanarkshire, revealed dancing actually helps him play rugby.
He said: “I was bullied in school because of dancing.
“I also play rugby, so a dancing rugby player is not usual, so I got a lot of shtick from the team, but then I was the one who would never get tackled because I could dance around them.
“You’re always going to receive shtick.
“I came in, when I started here there was 10 guys, there are now two of those guys left in my year.
“If you have guys front-flipping and back-flipping and doing all these tricks and you can’t do that, don’t give up.”
Pal Josh Stewart, 18, from Kelvindale, Glasgow, added: “He had the big rough exterior, and I was just a skinny wee lad.”
Josh explained that it was dancing itself that helped him overcome comments from others about his dancing.
He said: “My family was also a very big part of it.
“I have a very supportive family so they would always push me forward and tell me to just really go for what you want and say who really gives a damn about what they think.”
Offering advice to prospective dancers, student Matthew Wilson, from Greenock, Inverclyde, said: “I’d say just focus on you, because everybody else is around you and watching you because they’re jealous.
“That’s what I always thought when I was little like they were jealous because I was doing something that I loved and enjoyed and I was getting somewhere with it.
“So just stick with it and work hard.”
The 18-year-old added: “I think I’m going to try and do a degree course and then from there, get into professional jobs but eventually my big idea I want to have my own company, my own dance company.”
Dance Studio Scotland at Glasgow Clyde College sends 100 per cent of their students on to further education or straight into the industry with hugely successful courses NC Dance and HND Dance Artist.
Maxine added: “Dance Studio Scotland has gone from strength to strength in the 20 years since it began and our graduates are working across the globe in a variety of engagements from cruise ships to musical theatre in London’s West End and abroad and also appearing as featured dancers on major television shows such as X-Factor and MTV awards.
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“Our male students have been particularly successful.
“One graduate from Clydebank, Pierce Meehan, is currently touring around South America in a major cruise ship production and current HND student, Tony Polo has just returned from Turin, Italy with Scottish Ballet’s Youth Exchange Company having appeared in a major international dance festival.”
Let’s get men moving, send your application here.
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