>>I am the VERY proud mother of an 8 year old boy who has taken dance lessons for 4+ years now. He is very good and loves to dance. I would like advise on how to help him deal with peer pressure about his dancing as he gets older. He already gets a number of comments. I would be crushed if he quit because  of negative comments from others. We live in a small, rather backward southern town. He has no male dancers as role models around here. One excellent thing in his favor-- his father is very supportive of his dancing. I would appreciate any advise or support anyone can offer-- especially from men.                        .                                                       .      Hello! I suggest taking him to see any ballet performances that have other boys/men in them. If there are no performances near to where you live, you could try renting or buying some videos of performances. Go to your llibrary, and you will probably find some books with boy dancers in them.  Let him see that there ARE boys, well-rounded boys who happen to also be dancers too. Make sure too, that he has opportunities each week to do all the regular "boy stuff" too...like ride a bike, rollerblade, play baseball, dig for bugs...or whatever.  This way, ballet will be just "one part" of the boy that he is.  Stress to him that he is a wewll rounded boy who has many interests.  'Hope this helps.  Best of luck to him, and to you.