So, I've been dancing ballet for about a year now. I don't consider myself much of a dancer (I'm primarily an actor/singer/writer), but that's beside the point. As a bit of background, I've been living full-time as male and on T for four years.
The first thing you may notice about male ballet dancers is that they wear tights. Very tight, form-fitting tights. Now, by transguy standards, I feel that I have a very masculine body: broad shoulders, muscles (biceps and calves and other such accoutrements), body hair/facial hair and I'm probably about average transguy height (5'7"-ish). However, compared to cisguys, my thighs and butt are a little...shapely. Not feminine, but just thick for a guy, with tiny fat deposits that aren't terribly noticeable, but that definitely shouldn't be there, but to mention I defffiiinnnniiittteeellllyyyy have a butt. Not a girly butt, but not a dude butt, either. And despite all the watching of the diet and the trips to the gym, they're STILL THERE. As a transsexual person, it is distracting to look in the mirrors and watch my dancing only to be distracted by my own unsatisfactory form (especially when my friend, a cisguy, is skinny as a rail and looks unquestionably masculine in his tights next to me).
The next thing if that teachers encourage us to wear fitted tee shirts to dance in. Luckily, I am not very big (probably a B cup? I don't even know...refused to wear bras back in the day), and I have excellent binders. However, binders do not hide everything. It looks like I have disproportionately huge pecs that are in a weird place, but again, it's not enough to be noticeable; it just looks odd.
And then there is the question of the D. As with most pre-op transguys, I do not have a bulge significant enough to help me pass (especially in tights), so like any cisguy dancer, I have to wear a dance belt (Google it). I wear the thong kind. Yesterday, I was running low on time, so I pulled my dance belt on in a hurry and it split something in half that I'd rather not say the name of. I may not have a penis from taking T, but T does cause other things to...grow. I did not notice what I had done to myself and how uncomfortable it was until I got into the studio. Of course, one cannot simply run out and fix their dance belt, so I danced for an 1 1/2 with it fitting like that. Other than that, it was a wonderful class.
And that is a day in the life of a trans-dancer. Felt like sharing.
