Male ballet dancers gender identity construction: sexuality and body

Male ballet dancers are often constructed as being feminine or homosexual (Bailey & Obershneider, 1997; Phillips, 2008), attributes that do not conform to the broader social ideas of what it means to be a masculine male in South Africa. Therefore, the space occupied by male ballet dancers in South Africa is one that contradicts the patriarchal ideas of masculinity and is one that provides further insights into constructions of masculinity that do not conform to essentialist understandings. Therefore, the aim of this research report was to investigate the ways in which male ballet dancers construct their gender identities, sexualities and bodies within this contradictory space. A purposeful sample of four classically trained male ballet dancers over the age of 18 from Johannesburg, South Africa, were invited to participate in the study by means of snowball sampling. Data was collected using a semi-structured interview, and examined using narrative analysis. These results contributed to a better understanding of gender in an alternative domain, where the ways that male ballet dancers construct their gender identities are challenged.