The energy in Jared Schiro’s 5 p.m. Thursday hip-hop class is palpable. A gaggle of 5- and 6-year-old boys are gliding across the floor while the latest Justin Timberlake hit plays in the background. The teacher helps the boys perfect their moonwalk in preparation for their winter recital.

Schiro, a first grade student from Chappaqua is listening intently to his teacher and memorizing all of the dance moves. His focus is laser sharp and needs to be to ensure that the moves are done in sequence and in unison with his classmates. Schiro started dancing three years ago after causing a sensation on the dance floor at a relative’s bar mitzvah.

Diana Schiro, Jared’s mother likes that “dance helps with his hand-eye coordination, which is good for the sports that he’s committed to and it contributes to Jared’s well-roundedness.” And there’s more, “Dance is creative and it is an entree into appreciating the fine arts. It also gives him a lot of confidence to know he can dance well,” she says.

With hip-hop entering the mainstream, many boys are exercising their dance muscles throughout Westchester as a way to emulate stars they see on MTV or in YouTube videos. While many dance studios offer a multitude of options for hip-hop obsessed boys, finding a ballet, tap, musical theater or jazz class solely for boys still remains challenging.

Barriers to Ballet

Peter Cirolia, owner of New Rochelle-based dance studio Ballet Muscle, wishes that more parents would bring their boys to the ballet. “There is still this machismo idea that boys think ballet or dance is feminine. But if boys go to a ballet performance, they’ll see other males with the longest, strongest, most beautiful muscles lifting these gorgeous girls.”

European-trained Jean Logrea of Logrea Dance Academy of Ossining explains that in Europe, “ballet is much more respected as an art form for both male and female dancers and is integrated into the culture.” Cirolia, who also has ex-pat boys enrolled in his program from Europe notes that “anytime I come across foreign-born parents they have a completely different respect for ballet that differs from American parents.”

In Westchester, team sports have taken over the county with many parents spending their weekends watching games on the sidelines. “There is a social aspect to organized sports whereas ballet or other forms of dance are not social at all,” explains Cirolia.

The Beneits of Dance

Ballet offers many benefits for boys that are harder to obtain in organized team sports. Ballet enhances athletic performance and the musculoskeletal system. “With ballet, boys build deep-tissue muscle fibers. These deep-tissue muscle fibers help in soccer, football or any other sports and the strength that is gained helps with injury prevention. That’s the reason that elite athletes such as professional football stars now have ballet incorporated into their training programs,” explains Cirolia.

Ballet and other dance forms also require a great deal of memory skills. “If you start to learn an instrument or take a role in a play, you have notes or a script to guide you. In a dance class, you don’t have anything like that. You have to listen to the teacher and you have to memorize the movements,” explains Logrea. He believes that dance can greatly enhance a student’s memory skills, which will also serve them well academically.

Many parents of boys enrolled in dance classes also like the etiquette, discipline and self-control that is learned. “When you enter a ballet class there is a certain respect and etiquette. The best comparison is the military. You need self-control and if you have a question you have to wait until the combination is done,” Cirolia notes.

When to Start Dance Lessons

Opinions differ on what is the best age for boys to begin dance classes, but Logrea feels that 5 is a good age. He notes that many girls begin dancing at 3 but feels that their attention span is longer than boys of the same age. Maria Bai, the Artistic Director of Scarsdale’s Central Park Dance also feels that 5 is a good age for boys to start lessons. Cirolia believes that ages 6 to 8 are good because at that point there is less judgment from peers and a longer attention span.

Caty Lisanti’s son, James, actually started taking ballet lessons at age 15 at Ballet Muscle. He began initially taking personal training with Cirolia who also offers that at his studio. After training with him for three years, they decided to add dance to his schedule as another part of his fitness regimen. “James wanted a long, lean and strong body and ballet transforms your body in a way that other sports can’t. He also works out every day at the gym or does boxing, and ballet has been instrumental in injury prevention for him,” notes Lisanti.

If Cirolia had to give parents of boys any advice on dance he’d suggest that parents enroll their boys in a dance class even for just a few months because it will enhance them and their athletic performance whether they play sports casually or as an elite athlete. The muscle memory that they gain through dance will help them down the road.

“As a parent, you need to know that dance has athletic benefits and offers better alignment and injury prevention. Your boys will learn etiquette, respect and focus. Just because dance may have been foreign to you, doesn’t mean it should be foreign for your boys,” advises Cirolia.

Stacey Pfeffer lives with her husband and three young children in Chappaqua. She has written for New York Family Magazine, Westchester Parent, Kveller.com and Inside Armonk.