When Ballet beats boxing
"Billy Elliot"

Tolerance is one of the most important words on the world we call contemporary. The french philosopher Voltaire could even disagree with ideas and thoughts assumed by other people but, he was prompted to defend anyone's right to freely express their opinions, thoughts and ideology (even the ones he didn´t agree).

In a world in which the war prophets announce wars as fair incidents, and, fortunately, the world population understands these wars as unfair and as a result of the difficulties that people have to understand different ways of thinking, habits, orientations, social and economical organizations and political preferences, prevails opposite ideas from the ones deffended by french philosophers of enlightnement (among them, Voltaire). We are living under the dominium of intolerance.

And what we call intolerance is not only the happenings we watch from television cameras, in distant continents or countries with an arid and dry sightseeing. We can perceive it on the action of not accepting and understanding purposely what other people that are around us think (in our daily routine activities and in the places we often go such as our working places, the schools we attend, clubs,...).

History registered persecutions to minorities (like the christians in Imperial Rome), the witch hunt to all of those who didn't agree with the dominant religious practices of the middle ages (inquisition would go after them), violences against the people that lived under the ruling of imperial powers (romans expelled jews from the middle east; english used their strenght against their african and asian collonies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and many other atrocities. Motivated by economical interests and, also, by intolerance.

But, what about small acts of our daily activities that are, indeed, acts of intolerance? Anything we do that can show our lack of capacity to live with differences, that show we don't know how to give space and opportunity to other ways of thinking, living and acting? Around the world we have seen offensive actions against muslims because of the terrorists attempts of September 11. Many people started to act in a very irrational, insane way, assuming that each and any muslim was a terrorist and a potential enemy.

Far away from the big news, how many times don't we find out people showing their prejudice to other people because they don't share the same religion, by the fact they have chosen different sexual preferences or even because they don't cheer for the same soccer team? How many among us don't feel unconfortable with the idea of a son that wants to start on ballet dance classes or a daughter that wants to become a weight lifter?

"Billy Elliot" makes us face how intolerance can prevail on a daily situation. It is a sensible and touchy movie that must be seen. It allows us to discuss sincerely about this important and constant theme that is the search for tolerance in societies.

The Story

The boxing academy that is established in a gimnasium in a labour neighborhood of a small english town received a new and undesired group that will share space, the ballet classes of teacher Wilkinson (Julie Walters, a well-known talent in England that is getting to be known in other countries). All the boys that participated in the fights were very upset with the new situation, even Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell, a rookie in the movies that has done a great job).

Time revealed to Billy that sharing space with Ballet was pleasant, even, irresistible. The dancing combined with classical music turned out to be a more seductive alternative to Billy's eyes than the punches of boxing (by the way, an activity in which he was not very skilled).

The major problem happens because of the resistence of his family, particularly of his father (Jamie Draven), in accepting the idea of Billy becoming a ballet dancer. In a community in which the idea of being a man is related to strenght and virility (that could be easily seen on boxing), the possibility of becoming a ballet dancer seemed to put a person in the wrong direction, in the way of feminility or even homossexualism (many people think that all ballet dancers will have homossexual tendencies as soon as they choose ballet, as if it was a rule of nature).

Billy's talent recognized by his teacher and the intolerant mentality of the region in which the boy lives get in shock, in a very touchy story that seems to happen many times, around the world, even, very close to you...

P.S. This film won the major prize of the Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo (Brazil) and was indicated to 3 Hollywood academy awards.

For teachers

1- Ask your students about the meaning of the words tolerance and intolerance. Question them about what they know of this words but don't allow them to search for the meanings in dictionaries or any other source of research. Tell them to relate the concept they produced to examples they find in their routines or in newspapers, magazines,...

2- Show the film "Billy Elliot" to the students within whom you are working the concepts of tolerance and intolerance. Ask them about Billy's father and his community attitudes (what makes them act the way they do in the film? Can we say that they are intolerant? If you were living in places like the town in the movie, how would you react? Would it be possible for you to act in a different way?) Make as many questions as you can, explore the story and the movie images.

3- Make a research with literature and arts teachers about books and art works that can show us the idea of tolerance and intolerance. Discuss these cultural productions with the students. Try to relate the books and art works to the film, to history and to everyday happenings.

4- Tell your students to create stories, based on real facts lived by them or by known people in which, situations of intolerance can be seen (related to sexual, religious, cultural, race options or any other theme). Use their production to promote debates with other groups of students or even with the comunity.

João Luís Almeida Machado
Master Degree in Education, Arts and History of Culture (Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in São Paulo); Professor at Faculdade Senac in Campos do Jordão; Middle and High School teacher; writes weekly columns for the website Planeta Educação (www.planetaeducacao.com.br).

Send e-mails, comments, suggestions and critics for:
profjoaoluis@planetaeducacao.com.br

Technical Information

Billy Elliot

Country/Year of production:- Great Britain, 2000
Lenght of time/Gender:- 110 min., Drama
Director: Stephen Daldry
Screenwriter: Lee Hall
Cast:- Julie Walters, Jamie Bell, Jamie Draven,
Jean Heywood, Gary Lewis, Stuart Bells, Mike Elliot.

Links
- www.adorocinema.com/filmes/billy-elliot/billy-elliot.htm (portuguese)
- http://us.imdb.com/Title?0249462 (english)
- www.rottentomatoes.com/m/BillyElliot-1100994/ (english)
- www.cineinsite.com.br/filme/filme-fichatecnica.php?id_filme=948 (portuguese)