BalletBoyz is heading out on tour this month<\/a> to celebrate its 25th anniversary. In those two-and-a-half decades, Nunn and Trevitt have done a lot for the image of men dancing (they have had women in their shows over the years, too, it must be said). It was never their intention to make a statement, it was always just about great dance, but still, here were two straight men who danced together \u2013 and later a whole company of young men \u2013 and commissioned a new repertoire that wasn\u2019t about romantic partnering, but \u201ctwo matching energies and exploring the balance between them\u201d, as Trevitt puts it.<\/p>\n Around the same time Nunn and Trevitt were making their video diaries, another iconic male dancer\u00a0spun into view. The film Billy Elliot came out in 2000, the story of the miner\u2019s son who wanted to dance, and by the moving final scene was leaping into choreographer Matthew Bourne\u2019s pioneering Swan Lake with its cast of all-male swans. The film was turned into a multi-award-winning musical that\u2019s still going strong, with a new national tour opening this autumn.<\/p>\n It seemed like a moment where the image and profile of male dancers was changing \u2013 the so-called \u201cBilly Elliot effect\u201d \u2013 with rumours that one year more boys than girls auditioned for the Royal Ballet School. It feels as though in 2026 we\u2019re living in a culturally different time to the turn of the millennium, especially when it comes to expectations of gender, so have attitudes to boys and men dancing completely changed?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cool to dance now, isn\u2019t it,\u201d says Layton Williams, who was the ninth Billy Elliot on stage, and more recently a runner-up on Strictly with pro partner Nikita Kuzmin. \u201cMy nephew is dancing on TikTok with his mates, and he\u2019s a proper lad.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/68aa496f96631cef15aa6aa35f6f357d38ebc0d7\/138_18_5501_4401\/master\/5501.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c11e5e38b0b695a2079ead549db2de74\" "\\"\u2018My")
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