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How old was Billy Elliot when he started dancing?
In 1984, Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old from the fictional Everington in County Durham, England, loves to dance and has hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer.
What is Billy Elliot about?
Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–85 miners' strike, the film is about a working-class boy who discovers his passion for ballet, despite his father's objection and the negative stereotype associated ...
How much did Billy Elliot make?
Billy Elliot received positive critical response and commercial success, earning $109.3 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. At the 2001 British Academy Film Awards, the film won three of thirteen award nominations. Jamie Bell became the youngest winner for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
When was Billy Elliot the Musical first released?
In 2001, the film was adapted as a novel by Melvin Burgess. The story was also adapted for the West End stage as Billy Elliot the Musical, first produced in 2005. It opened in Australia in 2007 and on Broadway in New York City in 2008.
How old was Billy when he performed Swan Lake?
In 1998, 25-year-old Billy takes the stage to perform as the Swan in Matthew Bourne 's Swan Lake, as Jackie, Tony, and Michael watch from the audience. Billy's father is visibly moved by his performance.
How old is Billy from the movie?
The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher. Adapted from a play called Dancer by Lee Hall, development on the film began in 1999.
When did Billy Elliot premiere?
Billy Elliot premiered on 19 May at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival under the title Dancer. It was later decided to re-title the film Billy Elliot to avoid confusion with Dancer in the Dark, another film at Cannes that year.
What was Billy Elliot's inspiration?
While the film Billy Elliot was drawing huge crowds at the cinema yesterday, and expected to break first-weekend box office records, the real life inspiration for the heart-warming story was at a Royal Ballet gala - and looking back on his own arabesque from northern backstreets to Covent Garden. In the case of the Royal Ballet star Philip Mosley ...
Who said "We are very proud of Billy Elliot"?
His mother echoed: "We are very proud of him. We're glad he didn't have to go through everything Billy Elliot had to face."
Who was Barnsley in the Royal Ballet?
In the case of the Royal Ballet star Philip Mosley it was Barnsley rather than Billy's north-east, and the thumping rhythm of The Jam's A Town Called Malice had to be in his own small head rather than on Dolby cinema speakers.
Where did Philip go to school?
When Philip was nine, two friends joined him at dancing class and when he was entered for a free scholarship to the Royal Ballet's school in White Lodge, Richmond Park, south-west London, the neighbours celebrated heartily.
Who is Philip in Midsummer Night's Dream?
Philip, now 33, is a first artist with the Royal Ballet and his roles have included Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Who said "Philip had been doing it so long"?
Mrs Mosley, now retired like her husband, said: "Philip had been doing it so long, that no one really gave it a second thought. They'd come round to our house, just a terrace then though we've got three bedrooms now, and say: 'How's the lad doing?' Everyone knew that Albert was always finding time between jobs to run him around to classes or performances, and there were real celebrations when he got in."
Did Mosley hide his passion?
Mosley never hid his passion. His mother said: "He wasn't even three but he went on at me about going with her. I tells him: 'Lads don't go to dancing class' but he was just a bit persistent. So I asks the teacher, Rosalind Wicks, if she takes lads and she jumped at him.
What are some interesting facts about Billy Elliot?
10 Behind The Scenes Facts About Billy Elliot. Billy Elliot is one of the most inspiring movies to come out of the U.K. and is still popular today. Here are some lesser-known facts about the film. Billy Elliot is one of the most critically acclaimed and culturally significant British movies of the past several decades.
How old was Billy Elliot in the movie?
9 Jamie Bell’s Puberty. Billy Elliot is an 11-year-old boy and, as such, the actor portraying Billy had to be suitably aged for the role. As a result, aged 12 at the time, Jamie Bell was cast in the role of Billy Elliot. However, Jamie Bell’s age, while making him ideal for the role, also meant he was in the throes of puberty at the time.
What town was Billy Elliot filmed in?
Easington Colliery , the town that stood in for Everington during the filming of Billy Elliot, was a former coal-mining town with close connections between its inhabitants. In order to reflect this tight-knit community, cinematographer Brian Tufano had the scenes in the mining village feel as claustrophobic as possible.
Why does Tufano open up the scenes in which Billy dances?
However, Tufano would open up the scenes in which Billy dances to highlight how Billy feels free when he dances, allowing him to escape the social pressure of his community.
What is the movie "Billy" about?
The film follows Billy as he learns to gain the support of his family and friends, despite the art of men's ballet being frowned upon by his working-class community. The film famously concludes with a time jump, showing Billy dancing in Swan Lake for his father and brother.
Why did Julie Walters struggle with dancing?
While Dame Julie Walters didn’t have too much dancing to do, she did struggle with one particular dancing scene and explained that she struggled due to symptoms of menopause that she was experiencing at the time of filming.
Who studied ballet in 10?
10 Jamie Bell Studied Ballet. The film followed the titular Billy Elliot as he found a love of ballet, showing the boy as he managed to both learn about the art form and also learn how to convince those close to him that ballet is a worthy pursuit. What is interesting is that Jamie Bell, the actor who portrays Billy Elliot, ...
What is the real Billy Elliot?
The real Billy Elliot: How one family sacrificed everything to fulfill their son's dancing dream. His story could easily have been the inspiration for the hit film Billy Elliot: Boy from a mining village develops a passion for dance, to the bewilderment of his staunchly working-class family. Dominic Handford's father, Jonathan, is ...
Who drove Dominic to the audition?
Adele and Jonathan drove Dominic to the first audition in February, then walked anxiously around Birmingham while they waited for him to finish.
What did Adele's son want to do?
Adele vividly recalls her son's early ambitions to dance. 'At first, it seemed very odd that he wanted to dance so much - but he wouldn't stop nagging,' she says. 'So when he turned eight, we paid for him to attend weekly ballet classes in Swansea.
Did Billy Elliot ban ballet dancers?
'People were surprised but never critical. There used to be a stigma about male ballet dancers, but Billy Elliot banished that,' says Adele.
Overview
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–1985 miners' strike, the film is about a working-class boy who discovers a passion for ballet. His father objects, based on negative stereotypes of male ballet dancers. The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher.
Plot
In 1984, Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old from the fictional Everington in County Durham, England, loves to dance and has hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his widowed father, Jackie, and older brother, Tony, both coal miners out on strike (the latter being the union delegate). His maternal grandmother lives with them; she has Alzheimer's disease and had once aspire…
Cast
• Jamie Bell as Billy Elliot
• Julie Walters as Sandra Wilkinson
• Gary Lewis as Jackie Elliot
• Jamie Draven as Tony Elliot
Production
Lee Hall developed Billy Elliot from his play Dancer, which premiered as a rehearsed reading in 1998 at the Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was heavily influenced by photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's book Step by Step, about a dancing school in nearby North Shields. Writing in 2009, Hall said that "almost every frame of Billy Elliot was influenced by Step by Step [...] as every …
Reception
Billy Elliot premiered on 19 May at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival under the title Dancer. It was later decided to re-title the film Billy Elliot to avoid confusion with Dancer in the Dark, another film at Cannes that year. Billy Elliot was theatrically released on 29 September 2000 in the United Kingdom by Universal Pictures and Focus Features. In the United States, the film was released on 13 Octobe…
Stage musical
After the film's release, English singer-songwriter Elton John collaborated with the film's screenwriter Lee Hall to produce a musical adaptation of the film, which premiered 31 March 2005 at the Victoria Palace Theatre on the West End. Many of the film's crew took part in the stage production, including director Stephen Daldry and choreographer Peter Darling. The musical received positive reviews and ran for over 4,000 performances before closing in April 2016.
See also
• Brassed Off
• The Stars Look Down
• Yeh Ballet
• Hula Girls
• The Full Monty
Further reading
• Jacqueline Jones, "Small Towns and Big Dreams: Meditations on Two Mining-Town Movies" Perspectives on History (Feb 2011) 49#2 pp 30–31, compares film with "How Green Was My Valley".