Peter Boal

To start, is there anything that you want to share from your perspective as a male dancer or in a leadership position?

“It’s all about community…I joined a community where dance was accepted…my second year [at the School of American Ballet] we had a class that was all young men. There were about seven of us in that class. And in that kind of environment, an accepting community naturally starts to develop.”

“I think the boys have a community here at PNB. We probably have around 100 boys in the school. And there's sort of a mutual connection between all of the boys, even between the 16 year olds and the 9 year olds. The older boys have taken them under their wings and are like, ‘Yeah, that happened to us, too, and here's how we navigated it’…They can tell them their path, but they can also help them choose their own.”You mentioned in your memoir that you initially “made the decision not to tell any of [your] friends…[that you] were taking ballet lessons.” However, you didn’t elaborate much on this “announcement.” As such, I was wondering: why did you and your parents decide to conceal that integral aspect of your identity? What were you fearful of? Did those fears ever come to fruition when you did share? What was the overall reaction from your fellow peers and community when they found out you did ballet?

“My parents initially suggested that I be nervous about studying ballet, and that made me assume that it was something that I should hide or shouldn't be proud of. They sort of advised me that if I told people that I was studying gymnastics, that would be more accepted. So that's what I told people. But then it just fell apart. A couple of months in, people figured it out. But, nobody in my community seemed to care. They were more fascinated than discriminatory or judgmental about it. If anything, they were just really encouraging.”

“I think the advice of the principal at my school still holds true: if people already respect you and befriend you, they're probably going to stick with you.”

“My mother has told people, ‘Can you believe it? My daughter's the lawyer and my son's the ballet dancer.’ And it was like, ‘Yeah, we can believe it.’ It's all about starting to normalize that, so that it doesn't become this odd thing.”

It seems like you received a lot of support and mentorship early on from your family, your teachers, and your peers. And for a lot of young dancers, gaining that support is one of the most challenging aspects of pursuing ballet. So, what would you say was the most challenging aspect about pursuing dance for you?

“I think there were preconceived notions about the path that I would follow. Everyone that lived in my town had a very limited idea of what people could and should do…[including] my parents. They might have thought that the study of ballet was fine. I think they really welcomed that actually. But, there’s often this situation that ballet dancers face where their parents assume that they're going to college and then go into a secure and high-paying profession, but then face this certain nervousness about what my life would be like if their child decided to pursue ballet instead. [For me], it was not a question of whether [ballet was] right or wrong, but more if it was still possible to maintain this upper-middle class, privileged lifestyle that we were accustomed to and supposed to continue? I wouldn't call it an obstacle, but it was a question that was put before me: this is what you might not get if you pursue dance, are you okay with that?”

You noted in Illusions of Camelot that CBS News and Evening Magazine decided to interview you when you were a younger. Can you elaborate on what this interview entailed, and what it meant to you and the ballet community as a whole?

“It was a confirmation of my level of comfort and pride in what I was doing and also my families and my communities…the whole town was going to watch it...It felt good in a way because it felt like there was community support rallying around me.”

“I also really appreciated that they came back 30 years later because the story was still about ballet and still positive. At that point, I was a principal with New York City Ballet, and I had started to teach at the School of American Ballet.”

Are you familiar with Lara Spencer's comments in response to Prince George's pursuit of ballet?

“I think [Lara Spencer] probably tapped into what a lot of the world, or at least the country was thinking, which is unfortunate. And there was an opportunity there to normalize, endorse, and promote ballet as a great path to study or a profession to enter.”

“What’s unfortunate in our world is that [maybe people] don't even get to know people before [they] start developing these preconceived notions. But, if [they] got to know the people, [they’d] see that [they] have so much in common.”

Unlike Lara Spencer's comments, how do you think your interview put a positive spin on being a young ballet dancer?

"I don't know how many people would have seen it, but I hope there was somebody that saw it who needed to see it. And that's part of why I wrote my book. I hope there's somebody out there that's going to resonate with what they read, and that will empower them, and allow them to know that someone else suffered through or grappled with the same situations and found a path forward.”

You were lucky enough to have role models like Jerry Robbins, Stanley Williams, among others. How did those influences impact the trajectory of your career?

“I felt like I often had the right person at the right time. The first teacher that I had was Jean-Pierre Bonnefous…There was also Andrei Kramarevsky who brought this sort of over the top swagger and masculinity. And then Stanley Williams was much more poet and lyrical, and Jerome Robbins was very technical. They were great teachers, but all very different.”

“I grew up in what they called the ‘dance boom’ in New York, which meant that all the Baryshnikovs, the Fernando Bujones, and the Rudolf Nureyevs came to class. So, being surrounded by these icons and idols really inspired me to keep going.”

You mentioned that you lost someone very close to you as a result of the “gay disease” as you referred to it. How did the AIDS epidemic affect the ballet community? Did it heighten stigmatism towards the arts community and male dancers in particular?

“New York City was definitely an epicenter. And in the arts, there were a high portion of people that were at high risk…In New York City Ballet, there were two dancers who passed away. Other companies, like American Ballet Theater, were hit much harder with more than ten dancers tragically passing away.”

“I think, yes, it probably did temporarily [heighten stigmas]. But, New York City, again, is a very accepting community, but I couldn't really speak to other communities. But, we all saw what happened with the COVID pandemic. There were many people who were unvaccinated or refused to get vaccinated, and suddenly the country just became divided, and people started to forget that we're in this together anyway."

Through your experiences as a male ballet dancer, what do you believe is the biggest misconception about men and dance?

"People are always surprised that dancers can earn a living dancing, which seems odd to me. I know it's a struggle to do so, but certainly people do. And then I think some people have this false idea that all dancers are gay and they're not. That's just a narrow perspective. There's all types of dancers out there…the more [people] know, the more [people] see, the better.”

How do you think those misconceptions affect young boys? And what would you say to those young boys who face those challenges and misconceptions?

“I was lucky because I didn't have any sort of discrimination or prejudice. But, I would tell them that there is always a community out there that cares about [them] and will support [them]. I think that's the most important message.”

“I love dance. It gave me everything. It's where I met my wife, it's where I found all my friends. And I felt like it gave me this outlet to discover who I was, and I might not have even been able to tap into that in another profession. There were opportunities for expression and exploration through dance that I don't know I would have found elsewhere either. So I would say, ‘If you love it, keep going.’”

How can we, as an industry and in the broader community, work to support male dancers?

“It’s all about messaging families and communities…and [helping people realize that] the more we learn, the more empathy we have, and the more willingness we have to help everybody reach a better place, the better our world will be. So that's what it is.”

What do you think is the best way of sharing our stories?

“Sharing our stories is important, and social media does a lot of that. [However], it also perpetuates a lot of the tropes that are negative about ballet.”

“I'm a reader, so I love when somebody's willing to write a story.”

“After every single performance that we do at PNB, I host a conversation for audience members that want to stay, and it’s amazing hearing their stories from all over the world. Somebody grew up in Puerto Rico, and somebody grew up in the south side of Seattle. Just talking builds bridges."

Is there anything you would like to add or share?

“I'll add one thing. Naomi Glass makes the point of bringing DanceChance students to watch company class. And that’s really special…I see it in their eyes—their eyes are riveted on somebody that looks like them, but 20 years older. And that's a source of inspiration. In those moments, they realize that ballet can be a possibility for them.”

learn more about Peter Boal here & his memoir here

interview by William McClure Stout