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Billy, as a character, is a representation of the individualistic life we live today. Like most of the boys in his neighborhood, Billy was expected to be either a boxer or a miner and follow in the footsteps of his father and brother. Traditional family values would see children doing the same, following a career choice predetermined, similar or in line with their parents. Billy, on the other hand, develops a strong attraction towards ballet, which would traditionally be seen as a career not suitable for a man. This situation is a foreshadowing of the prominence of stereotypes in traditional family values, and how now, they mean less than they did before. Men are meant to take on roles as the "head of the house", they are seen as the masculine entity of the house and are present to serve as the provider. Ballet is the complete opposite of the stereotype. In the movie, when Billy initially joins the class, the director puts direct emphasis on how he does not belong in the shot. Billy is seen dancing in the middle of a long line of girls who are all dressed in white, with the lighting of the scene being bright and almost angelic. In the center of this feminine, angelic shot, we see a small, scrawny Billy, in his boxing boots with boxing gloves around his neck, wearing black shorts, a perfect contrast to the bleach white tutus of the girls. This is purposefully done in order for us to quickly pick up on the contrast between the two gender roles. Billy clearly does not belong where he is, yet when the students start dancing, the camera angel focuses solely on the dancers feet, eliminating our ability to tell which dancer he is, and we see here that although he might not stereotypically fit in to the situation, when you eliminate the stereotype and you focus on the dancing, he is just as good, if not better than his female classmates. This scene is a two-point perspective of the traditional American dream versus its modern version.
