As he slipped quietly into the studio, a shy, 12-year-old Graham Kaplan was nervous enough about being the only boy in a room full of girls.
The glaring fact he was wearing tights for the first time in his life only saddled more weight onto his self-conscious mind.
It was definitely different for me, said Kaplan, now 20.
I already had training for the other disciplines, but there was fear; it was something completely new.
Kaplan remembers vividly his first ever day in ballet class at Richmonds Urban Dance Company.
That day seems like a lifetime ago for Kaplan, who has just started his first professional job as a dancer an apprenticeship with the contemporary ballet company BJM Danse, formerly known as Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal.
Spinning his mind back to the opening act of his ballet life, as outgoing as Kaplan was hed progressed from a nine-year-old through hip-hop, tap and jazz genres boys in ballet was still very rare, even eight years ago.
And before discovering a passion and latent talent for dance, Kaplan was into sports like many other eight-year-old boys.
The leap into hip-hop was fine pretty cool for most boys. Even tap and then jazz would have, at best, raised an eyebrow of a buddy or classmate.
But, priming himself to be finger-pointed by other boys, it was with trepidation that he took the next big step of venturing into the predominantly female world of ballet.
I was very intrigued by it all, and I knew it was something I wanted to do, said Kaplan, who was advised the best foundation for a career in dance was learning ballet.
There was definitely a bit of teasing and making fun; being a boy and everything.
It was still very unusual and there was still some discrimination and misunderstanding of it all.
However, thanks to some advice by Urban Dances artistic director, Wendy Lee Riley, Kaplan was armed with the perfect comeback to any poking from so-called friends.
I just told them that Im surrounded by girls wearing tight clothes, and I get to hold them all the time, he said, pointing out that he didnt have to wear a tutu.
But all that aside, I knew early on this was the way to go for me. It was vital for my future.
Thankfully, being in or around the spotlight was not totally alien for Kaplan, having grown up assisting his magician dad, John, on stage for years.
He always needed tricks and dancers in his show, he recalled.
But it was my mom who decided to put me into a structured class.
Also, around that time, TVs So You Think You Can Dance came out and Kaplan was mesmerized and inspired by the male talent on the show.
It made me realize I need to strengthen up on my technique, as, quite often, the best dancers had a really strong ballet background.
Having just graduated from the Arts Umbrella program for aspiring dancers on Granville Island after two years, an excited Kaplan is now in Montreal with BJM Danse and preparing to jet off on a world tour, including Italy, France and Israel.
Now hes broken through and beginning to forge a career, Kaplan has some sound advice of his own for any young boy thinking of following a similar path.
Its a lot of hard work and you need to really love it to do it, he said.
If theres something else that you love just as much, you should maybe consider that.
But being on stage is like no other experience; its such a rush being up there.
