"Just because I like ballet don't mean I'm a poof, you know."
Billy is well aware of the stereotype that people see when they see male ballet dancers. Men like his father and the kids he is at school with believe that his love of ballet is symbolic of his sexuality. In this instance, his friend Michael (who is gay) also seems to believe there's a correlation between his interest in ballet and his sexuality, but with this quote, Billy insists that there is not.
Sandra: This'll sound strange, Billy, but for some time now I've been thinkin' of the Royal Ballet School.
Billy: Aren't you a bit old, Miss?
Sandra: No, not me... you! I'm the bloody teacher.
Mrs. Wilkinson introduces Billy to dancing in general and ballet in particular, and she realizes very quickly that he is her most talented student. She knows that he is talented enough to at least audition for the Royal Ballet School, but knows that it will sound strange to Billy, and to anyone else, that a boy from a mining family should pursue a calling to dance at the highest level. This comic exchange marks the first suggestion that Billy take his craft more seriously and pursue dance with passion and focus. It also shows the wry irreverent tone of both Billy and Sandra.
Grandma: I used to go to ballet.
Billy: See?
Jackie: All right for your Nana. For girls. No, not for lads, Billy. Lads do football...or boxing...or wrestling. Not friggin' ballet.
Billy is triumphant when his grandmother tells his father that she used to take ballet classes. He feels that it validates his interest, but Jackie sees Grandma's dancing aspirations as proof that ballet is for girls and not for boys. This exchange marks the fact that Billy and others believe in his talent, while Jackie does not.
"Sorta feels good. Sorta stiff and that, but once I get going... then I like, forget everything. And... sorta disappear. Sorta disappear. Like I feel a change in my whole body. And I've got this fire in my body. I'm just there. Flyin' like a bird. Like electricity. Yeah, like electricity."
At the end of his audition, when it seems like things have not gone very well for Billy, a judge asks him what it feels like when he dances. Billy says this as his response. It is an unformed, un-pre-meditated, and raw account of his emotional experience of dance. The descriptors he uses show the judges (and the viewer) that Billy has a deeply felt passion for his discipline, that it is something intrinsic to his very being.
Billy: I think I'm scared, Dad.
Jackie: That's okay, son. We're all scared.
Billy: Well... if I don't like it, can I still come back?
Jackie: Are you kidding? We've let out your room.
Just before Billy goes to ballet school, he and his father visit his mother's grave, and Billy expresses his reservations about going away to school. While he is very passionate about dance, he knows that going to a fancy dance school in London will be a huge culture shock and will change the course of his life. Affectionately, his father jokes that he has no choice but to stay at the school, since he's going to be renting his room.
Billy: So what about your mother? Does she have sex?
Debbie: No, she's unfulfilled. That's why she dances.
Billy: She dances instead of sex? Your family's weird!
Debbie, Sandra's daughter, tells Billy that her mother is unfulfilled in her marriage to her father, which is why she is so passionate about dance. In this moment we learn more about Sandra, and the fact that she is such a good teacher in part because she is making up for other parts of her life that are not so good.
"You're a ballet dancer, then let's be havin' it!"
When Sandra goes to the Elliots' house to confront them about the fact that Billy missed his audition, Tony is indignant about his brother's interest, bullying his brother for his secret girly passion. He tells Billy to get on the table and dance to prove to them that he's a dancer. This moment epitomizes the aggressive and bullying disposition of Billy's older brother, Tony.
Sandra: She must've been a very special woman, your mother.
Billy: No she was just me mam.
In this exchange, Sandra tries to sentimentalize her sympathy for Billy's loss of his mother. She tries to soften the fact of the loss by suggesting that his mother was special, but Billy takes a more straightforward approach, insisting that she wasn't special, she was just his mother. His candor suggests that his mother doesn't need to have been special for him to miss her.
"I'm going to let Mrs. Wilkinson use the bottom end of the boxing hall for her ballet lessons. So no hanky-panky, understood?"
As George tells the boxers that Sandra is going to be using the gym for ballet, this marks the first point at which Billy sees the ballet class. This simple shared use of space, remarked upon casually by George, marks the beginning of a major shift in Billy's life.
Billy: Tony, do you ever think about death?
Tony: Fuck off.
Early on in the film, Billy tries to connect with his brother about the loss of their mother, but Tony has no interest, telling his younger brother to "fuck off." This shows that Tony has a bullying temperament, and that Billy is lonely in his own family.
