Throughout the film, Jackie evolves in his attitudes, and eventually feels immense pride for his son when Billy wins a place at the school. Seeing that Billy's passion is not just some kind of pipe dream, Jackie works tirelessly to help ensure that Billy will be able to follow his passions. Later, however, Jackie sees Billy dance and realizes what an outstanding talent he is.
He butts heads with both of his sons with Tony because of his radical union activity, and with Billy because of his love for dance. Underneath his gruffness and bouts of anger, Jackie is a deeply feeling man who wants what's best for his family. He has explosive emotions that come out at inopportune moments, especially as he struggles to raise two boys and look after his aging mother. Jackie is the archetypal Northern English working class man, a miner and a widow. Ultimately, however, Billy is a sensitive and deeply feeling individual, a boy who wants to escape the roughness of the world through self-expression and movement. Sometimes the anger and violence that surrounds Billy bubbles up in him, and he can become enraged and destructive. As he says at the end of his audition for ballet school, the feeling of dancing is like "electricity." Billy is understanding, sensitive, and imaginative, even though he is surrounded by violence and difficulty. Even though he is surrounded by no male dancer role models, he believes that dancing is what he is meant to do. No working-class English man is going to be happy to hear that their son wants to do something stereotypically effeminate, and Billy's widowed father, Jackie, does not approve of his son's interest.īut Billy is passionate about dancing-so passionate that he continues to dance even when strictly forbidden to do so. Eleven-year-old Billy is an aspiring ballet dancer who comes from a tough mining community in Northern England.