I know the final scene of Billy Elliot is the scene where he is playing the lead role in Swan Lake. I had heard about Swan Lake before but decided to do some research about the plot of the ballet and where it came from to see why this particular ballet was chosen for Billy’s final scene. I know it’s one of the few famous ballet’s where a man plays the lead character, and I find it intereting how a swan, which is usually a traditionally feminine symbol centers around the life of a man instead of a woman. According to Wikipedia “Having a man in the role of lead Swan puts love between men at center stage, and the naturalistic choreography given to the swan corps discredits the archetype of the swan as a pretty, feminine bird of gentle grace.” This is obviously the perfect choice for Billy being that transcending archetypes of masculinity and femininity is a central theme in Billy Elliot. Billy chooses a traditionally and stereotypically more feminine hobby in dancing ballet, going against certain hetero-normative ideals, just as Swan Lake blurs the lines between masculinity and femininity with its central character being a male ballerina.
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I love the comparison you make between the Swan Lake play and the Billy Elliot film, highlighting the theme of sexuality versus gender. This can simultaneously bring light to whether Billy is a homosexual or not as we had in class discussed whether the man seated next to Michael during the final scene of the play was someone Billy was dating. As the class on the most part seemed divided on that idea, I felt that Billy was a heterosexual and that man was dating Michael, not Billy because if Billy was such close friends with Michael then it would be safe to assume that if he did have to date a man, it would most likely be a friend, someone he knows and grew up with, at least that’s the feeling that I got from that moment. But if someone did use your info on the background of the play’s plot and how it shows “love between men”, then that someone would have sufficient material to use in their argument on why they believe Billy to be gay.