Billy Elliott and Habitus. A Cosmic Dancer from Everington (PDF)

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2.3, Bielefeld University, language: English, abstract: Everington, Durham, 1984 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has just declared war on the mining industry, and therefore, on the entire county. The people have laid down their tools to go on strike, and they are willing to make sacrifices until their fight for better salaries and working conditions succeeds. In this environment, hard men cannot allow themselves to show any weaknesses, because it could lead to the ruin of their families or the entire community. The miners stick together-anyone who falls out of line, particularly the picket line, will certainly suffer a loss of reputation among the others.

In this male-dominated, standardized context, the rise of an individual can attract a great deal of attention, and Billy Elliot represents an individual in every sense of the word. He is a boy on the edge of reaching puberty and does not express himself in the rough Durhamian way. He is bad at boxing and speaks softly. His best friend is a secret homosexual, a misfit in the midst of the community. Despite his uniqueness, Billy still seems to possess a predetermined future: one day, he will become a miner, too. In Everington, your origins determine your future, and it is the natural order of things that a boy will follow in the footsteps of his ancestors.

Billy, however, is unwilling to accept this natural order, instead choosing a different way of expressing his feelings and struggle with life. He begins dancing ballet, an unthinkable activity for a boy from Durham, because it exactly contradicts the ideal of rural manhood. Even if Billy works extremely hard to improve his dancing skills with the support of his ballet teacher, he also must convince his biggest critics that his dream is one worth fighting for. Only when his father, his brother and the miners in general finally accept and support his determination can he claim his destiny and achieve his goals.