How easy is it to be a ballet dancer, when you come from a miner family? It is not easy at all.1984 in the coal mining village of Evington, Billy Elliot was living with his father Jackie, big brother Tony and his Nan. The mother died a few years ago, and no one is really talking about that. “Do you think of death?” Billy asks his big brother. Whose only comment to him, as well as to the rest of the world, is "fuck off", "shut up" and similar irresponsible statements.
In the small town where Billy lives, the miners’ strike, and every day there are battles between the strikers and the breakaways. Billy´s father and brother are at the forefront of the barricades, which is typical for the mood of the small family, where grandmother is too forgetful to put the slightest female touch on everyday life. She can´t even remember which of the gravestones, of that God-forsaken cemetery is her daughter´s.
The men in this universe, had to be massive and strong and because of that it was as natural as amen in the church, that Billy had to do boxing, so he one day could become a real man. In that time, it was the same hall where girls would dance ballet, and boys would do boxing. In that hall, Billy got his eyes open for ballet. He realized that boxing was not for him, he wanted to dance ballet. Therefore, he started to take ballet lessons with the girls. The reason was not that he was about to choose sexuality or because he was a chicken. Only because he got his eyes opened for the male ballet. But he knew that this was not how the local world would view his interest, and when his father found out that he secretly had joined Mrs. Wilkinson’s lessons, he freaked out. “I'm busting my ass for those pences”, his father said. This quote clearly illustrates that they didn’t had a lot of money, but his father anyways payed for Billy´s boxing lessons so he could become a real man.
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