Buoying up boys.

As a dance teacher in the public school system, I absolutely love your magazine. I've used your November 2001 feature "Confessions of a Boy Dancer" to help students examine stereotypes about male dancers. This year I have an eighth grade with eight very talented male kids. The other day we talked about our spring performance, and one said, "We aren't going to perform for the district, are we?" None wanted to be perceived as "dancers" because they didn't want to be mocked.

I would love to see the problems of young male dancers-in-training addressed. Being in middle school is awkward for everyone--you body is changing, you begin to have more interest in the opposite sex, and peer pressure rears its ugly head--but it's especially hard if you're a boy who enjoys dancing. Hopefully stereotypes will continue to fade, but in the meantime it would be wonderful to show my male students other boys their age whom they can relate to. Thanks again for working so hard to create an informative, educational, and enjoyable magazine!

Taylor J. Werkman

Dance Instructor

Lima North Arts Magnet/Lima

Senior High School

Lima, OH

DM Responds: Our November gender issue has a story By Kathy Valins, "Fear of Men in Tights," ,which examines what has changed--and hasn't--in perceptions of male dancers.