The film Billy Elliott may have made ballet more popular with boys, but there are some out there who were interested in ballet before they saw the film.
Twelve-year-old Aaron Carrig Dempsey, from Santry in Dublin, has been attending ballet classes at the Factory, in Barrow Street, Dublin, since last September - before he saw Billy Elliott. He just loves dancing and he has always wanted to dance, explains his mother Jackie Carrig.
"It's just his life actually. He wants to go on to study dancing after his Leaving." Individuals and teachers at his school told Jackie that ballet was "the basic" for all dancing, that it helps everything, such as posture. At first he felt queasy, Jackie says, being the only boy in the ballet class. "He got over it and he actually likes it, but it was awkward for him at the start. He was finding it hard at times, you know the usual," says Jackie. He was getting hassle from some people, but she says there have been no problems recently. He used to be teased from other boys about his dancing, but, he says, "I used to mind, but then I just told them how I do it, who I do it with, and the things I get for doing it." Aaron thinks that more boys may get interested in dance if they see Billy Elliott.
The film has been an inspiration for Aaron. He hadn't realised there was a school of ballet as such before watching the film. Now he has his heart firmly set on going to a college of dance, to be a dancer and eventually teach. He is aware that there are more college opportunities abroad and he says he will travel to learn. He and his parents insist that he will do his Leaving Cert as it is needed for entry to some dance colleges.
Although he has the Riverdance and Lord of the Dance videos, and loves watching them, Irish dancing has never featured as a type of dance that Aaron has been interested in. From the age of four he did tap-dancing for a few years and he has been doing freestyle for two years. He has also started singing and drama in the last few weeks.
Aaron's life is filled with dance and on Mondays he has freestyle. Tuesday and Wednesday he has Latin. Thursdays are devoted to ballet and freestyle, Fridays to singing and drama. Saturday is full with freestyle, ballet and Latin. Sunday is free unless there are competitions. As he is in first-year these fit in easily after school and after homework in the evenings, says Jackie.
Recently Aaron and his dance partner achieved second place in the 11 to 13 age group in a Latin-American dance competition in Tralee, Co Kerry. They also achieved fourth in their preChampionship, and got through to the last 18 of 54 dancers and through to the semi-final in another section; all after dancing together for only four weeks.
Aaron's two brothers and sisters think his dancing is great and will travel, if they can, to support him. "The whole family on both sides - they think it's brilliant for him and they love watching him, especially the Latin. Nobody has seen the ballet, nobody can see it until he's actually performing."
The Latin, she says, is expensive costume and timewise and private lessons are costly. At Easter Aaron and his partner are representing Ireland in a competition in Blackpool. Sponsors are hard to get, and especially for the costumes, which have to be bought a few times a year.
There are whisperings that Latin-American dancing will be changing its name to Dance Sport because of the possibility of it being considered as an Olympic sport. Dance is like a sport anyway for Aaron. "They have to do warm-ups, they have to do a stretch, everything basically like a sport. When they finish dancing they cool down then," says his mother. "He does so much dancing around. Even when he's not dancing he does so much running around here actually dancing. It's just constant all the time. We're just used to him."
