Looking for information on men's ballet technique
I have a male character who is 16 and dancing ballet at a pre-professional level. He has been dancing for 8 years in my timeline and he aspires to dance as a career. Thing is, I haven't personally taken a dance class since 1998, I've never taken a ballet class on the level I want to write about and I'm a woman. I'm hoping someone here can give me information or resources. The story is set in what is essentially New York, so the city I'm working with has a dance academy ostensibly prestigious enough to host men's only classes.
What I know so far:
- Intimately familiar with proper men's dance attire including tights and the dance belt
- Basic positions of the feet, port de bras, turnout, and pulling up
- Basic positions and how they're done such as plié, relevé, tendu
What I need:
- A proper progression of a typical advanced technique class, with special attention on center work and combinations (just a list of techniques/positions are fine)
- A proper progression of a typical men's class, with combinations and suggestions on jumps (again, a list would be greatly loved)
- Information on pointe work for young men (I am aware boys on pointe are extremely atypical)
If you can deliver the above in either a post or a link or a helpful book suggestion, I would be very grateful. I've been working off a few specialized men's dance blogs (but none seem to offer curriculum or in-depth explanation of daily classwork) and general library books about ballet, as well as lots and lots of YouTube videos. The story I'm working on is a sort of slice-of-life and I need to have more background information so that I can write what I feel is a correct and engaging ballet practice for my character. The ballet practice itself is not central to the story, but rather helps establish an alternative fantasy to an less-than-ideal home life for my character.
What I know so far:
- Intimately familiar with proper men's dance attire including tights and the dance belt
- Basic positions of the feet, port de bras, turnout, and pulling up
- Basic positions and how they're done such as plié, relevé, tendu
What I need:
- A proper progression of a typical advanced technique class, with special attention on center work and combinations (just a list of techniques/positions are fine)
- A proper progression of a typical men's class, with combinations and suggestions on jumps (again, a list would be greatly loved)
- Information on pointe work for young men (I am aware boys on pointe are extremely atypical)
If you can deliver the above in either a post or a link or a helpful book suggestion, I would be very grateful. I've been working off a few specialized men's dance blogs (but none seem to offer curriculum or in-depth explanation of daily classwork) and general library books about ballet, as well as lots and lots of YouTube videos. The story I'm working on is a sort of slice-of-life and I need to have more background information so that I can write what I feel is a correct and engaging ballet practice for my character. The ballet practice itself is not central to the story, but rather helps establish an alternative fantasy to an less-than-ideal home life for my character.