High School - Neung-rul - 2nd Grade - Lesson 3

Lesson 3 Challenging New Worlds

 

Billy Elliot

 

Billy Elliot is a story about a boy who wants to be a ballet dancer despite society’s stereotypes, as well as the opposition of his family and friends. He has to overcome some major obstacles, including his own doubts, in order to realize his dream of becoming a ballet dancer.

 

In 1984, an eleven-year-old boy lived in a poor town in England with his father, his elder brother, and his grandmother. Billy’s father wanted his son to take boxing lessons. To Billy’s father, boxing was not only a family tradition; it was also the most masculine sport. Billy’s father was an admirer of the boxing champion, Ken Buchannan, and he hoped that his son would become a champion boxer as well.

 

Boxing didn’t appeal to Billy at all, however. After several visits to the local gym, where many boxers trained, Billy was sure that he had no interest in boxing, and it was obvious that he had very little talent for it. Instead, he became much more interested in the ballet classes which took place at the same gym. Something about the graceful, structured movements captured Billy’s attention.

 

At first, he felt uncomfortable about ballet because he thought it was just for girls. Like most boys, Billy had been exposed to many stereotypes about boys and even believed some of them himself: “Boys should wear blue and play with trucks, and girls should wear pink and play with dolls.” As he developed an increasing love of ballet, however, he forgot these prejudices and pursued his dream.

 

Following that dream, Billy began taking ballet lessons from Mrs.Wilkinson, who saw that Billy had real potential to be a great ballet dancer. Billy didn’t tell his father about these lessons, though. One day, his father discovered Billy’s secret. He was angry at his son for going against his will. As a working-class man brought up to believe in the traditional gender roles of men and women, it was hard for him to accept his son’s interest in ballet. He had been taught that dancing was a female pursuit and that boys should learn only “manly” sports. Billy argued with his father about it.

 

Billy: What's wrong with ballet? It's perfectly normal.

Father: It's for girls, not for lads, Billy. Lads do football or boxing or wrestling!

Billy:It is not just girls who do ballet, Dad. Some ballet dancers are as fit as the best athletes.

 

Billy went against his father’s order to give up ballet and started taking private lessons from Mrs. Wilkinson. Knowing Billy’s potential, she decided to encourage him to try out for the Royal Ballet School.

 

Wilkinson: I've been thinking of the Royal Ballet School. They hold auditions in Newcastle.

Billy: I'd never be good enough.

Wilkinson: That's not true. I think you're good enough to go for it.

 

After lots of training, Billy was finally ready to audition for the Royal Ballet School. However, Billy didn’t have the money to pay for the audition, and his father and brother didn’t support him. They continued to say, “Ballet is for girls!” Billy didn’t listen to this sort of talk any more, though. He was determined to achieve his goal, and things were about to turn his way.

 

Then on Christmas Eve, when Billy was performing, his father happened to see him. At that moment, Billy’s father realized how much hard work Billy had put into learning ballet. It was Billy’s enthusiasm and devotion that moved his father and finally convinced him to support his son’s decision to be a dancer. He knew this would require a big adjustment in his attitude because he was a traditional man not used to challenging society’s values. Nevertheless, he made up his mind to pay for Billy’s ballet lessons and to send him to the audition.

 

Billy’s father somehow managed to get the money together and the two of them went together to the Royal Ballet School audition. Billy was so nervous that he wasn’t able to perform his best. After the audition, Billy was interviewed by someone from the Royal Ballet School.

 

Interviewer: Can I ask you, Billy? What does it feel like when you’re dancing?

Billy: It is hard for me to say. It sort of feels good. It’s like I forget everything. It’s like there’s fire in my body. I’m just there, flying like a bird.

 

A few days after they returned home from the audition, Billy received a notice saying that he had been accepted by the Royal Ballet School, and soon he went off to London to continue his studies. He eventually became a wonderful dancer, and his father and brother came to see him in a performance of Swan Lake. The young lad from a poor coal-mining town, where he had been treated as an ugly duckling, had at last grown up to become a handsome swan.