A talented young boy’s family faces the question of whether joining a prestigious but secular ballet program fits a Torah upbringing.
Q. A family in our community has a 6 year old child who loves to dance and they allowed him to attend ballet classes. He was then asked to move to the Israel Ballet School (the school that feeds into the Israel Ballet because he has professional potential). He attends Dati schools in Israel. A teacher at his Dati school (who they think might be Charadi) told the family that the child needs to stop ballet or he won’t be accepted into Yeshiva after high school. The little boy wants to go to Yeshiva and be a Tzadik and also wants to participate in pre-professional ballet (and maybe professional ballet) when he is older. The family is interested to find out if there are Dati Yeshivot who would accept such a boy.
Without knowing the boy and other important details involved, I can just say that in general, ours is a Living Torah, and Rav Kook writes that in general, every child should develop their G-dly potential, and in Eretz Yisrael in our Jewish State, there should undoubtedly be an halachic way (especially where I imagine it’s important to the child). I would suggest contacting the Yeshiva High School Kinor David in Ateret for the arts which is mainly for music but they may also have dance or some idea where he should go. As he gets older, the issue of dancing with girls is also problematic, so I would advise the parents to already start checking around. The Yeshivot Gevohot of Tekoa and Otniel whose graduates have religious men’s dance troupes, named “Kol Atzmotei Tomarna” and “KaEt”, so the parents could start asking there for tips and advice. B’hatzlacha!
Leave a Reply