Can Male Dancers Dance en Pointe?

 

 

 

I have been asked this question so many times by dance students, “Can male dancers dance on Pointe?”  There are several reasons that we don’t see this very often other than the famous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. I will try to sum up a few and include a link to a great video.

The dancer extra  must take great time and effoet  in developing strength in the arch and ankles, and for many male ballet dancers it simply is not worth the trouble. At the same time, some male ballet dancers, have argued for the value of male dancers learning to dance en pointe, if only as a strength and balance exercise.

 The frame of thought is that you don’t see male ballet dancers on their toes because choreographers don’t tend to come up with choreography for them. There are a few exceptions to this,  one is Sir Frederick Ashton’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which Bottom the donkey dances en pointe to represent hooves.

One other  exception is the all-male ballet corps of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, in which a number of the male dancers wear ballerina attire and dance female parts. As the corps focuses primarily on classical and romantic ballet, this means that most of their shows feature many male ballet dancers dancing en pointe. Although the corps is in many ways presented as parody, the tecnique of the dancers is pretty amazing, and shows the ability of male ballet dancers to dance en pointe with amazing strength and grace as you can see in the video link below. Watch this video of  Vladimir Makahlov and you decide…..

http://www.networkdance.com/album/view_wallmedia.php?pid=264&media_type=3&media_id=79393