Summary
We see the Elliots at Christmas, wearing paper crowns. Jackie begins to sob and the family stays silent. That night, Billy and Michael build a snowman outside and Michael offers him some liquor that he stole from his father. Billy spits it out, thinking it tastes awful, as Michael tells him that perhaps it's all for the best that he's not allowed to audition for dancing school, since that means he won't have to go away.
When Billy says his hands are cold, Michael warms them up and Billy asks him if he's gay. Michael kisses him on the cheek, and though Billy cannot return his friend's affection, he accepts him.
Billy and Michael go to the gym and Billy tells Michael to put on a tutu. Meanwhile, we see a group of men, including Jackie and Michael's fathers, stumbling home drunk from the pub. One of the men, George, sees that there is a light on upstairs at the gym and goes in to find Billy teaching Michael ballet. He watches for a while, then leaves, unseen by the boys.
Outside, George calls to Jackie and invites him into the gym to see what the boys are doing. Jackie confronts Billy and is especially horrified to see Michael in a tutu. In the face of his father's deep disapproval, Billy continues to dance vigorously, leaping through the air and twirling impressively around the gym. Jackie tells Billy to go home and goes out.
Jackie goes to the Wilkinsons' house to speak to Sandra, who he finds sitting on the couch. "How much is it going to cost?" Jackie asks her, and she tells him that it will cost maybe two grand. He doesn't mean the school, however, just the audition, and Sandra tells him they just have to get Billy to London. "Thanks for everything you've done for Billy, but he is my son, isn't he?" Jackie says, "I'll handle it myself."
When he returns home, Jackie sits on Billy's bed and stares at him. The next day Jackie walks near the water thinking, before reporting to work in the mines in order to make money for Billy's audition. He gives his name to an authority and rides the bus to work, smoking on the bus as they ride. When they arrive at the strikes, the mobs are throwing food at the windows and shouting. In the middle of shouting "Scab!" at the bus, Tony notices his father and calls to him.
Tony chases the bus into the mines, climbing over a fence and running to Jackie as he gets off the bus. He pleads with his father not to go to work, but Jackie insists that they have nothing to offer Billy and he needs to work. "It's for Billy! He may be a fucking genius for all we know!" Jackie yells. Tony hugs his father and they cry, as Jackie sobs, "Let's give the boy a fucking chance!" Tony comforts his father and tells him that they will find a way to get Billy some money as the other men on strike approach.
That night, Tony tells Billy that their mother would have let him audition. The next day, Billy looks at the money they have, but it's not enough. George, the other miner, is there, and offers to have a fundraiser for Billy.
Jackie looks at his late wife's gold jewelry, before bringing it in and selling it to help fund Billy's audition. The scene shifts and we see Jackie taking Billy to a bus to go to his audition. He scolds Billy, telling him to walk normally as Billy prances down the street. On the bus, Billy asks Jackie what London is like, and Jackie tells him he's never been. "Why would I want to go to London?" he says.
Billy and Jackie go to the Royal School of Ballet and sign in for the audition. The building is grand and Billy looks around wide-eyed at the students at the school. As Billy gets ready for his audition, another boy asks him where he's from. He tells him "Durham" and the boy asks if there's an amazing cathedral there, but Billy tells him he's never been. Billy then gets measured before the audition by two doctors who examine his body for any abnormalities.
In the hall, Billy calls to Jackie and tells him he's changed his mind about the audition, but Jackie ushers him back in to get ready. Billy goes into the audition and announces himself to the judges, before going to the barre and showing them his technique. They whisper to each other as they examine his body. Afterwards, they ask to see him dance to music and they play the tape he has prepared. Billy just stands there and stares at them, terrified, as the tape plays, before beginning to dance around the room.
Analysis
The fear surrounding Billy's interest in ballet is that it signals to the world that he is gay. He is not gay, but his friend Michael, who enjoys cross-dressing and has a tender affection for Billy, is. When Michael reveals to Billy that he is gay, Billy does not return the feeling, but he is not judgmental of his friend, smiling warmly to signal that he will keep Michael's secret safe. In this way, Billy Elliot shows not only that ballet is not necessarily correlated with sexuality, but that homosexuality isn't a damning identity anyway. In the midst of the violence and patriarchal values of the mining town, Billy is a light of acceptance and understanding for his gay friend.
Billy's solution for many of his problems throughout the film is to dance passionately. For instance, after his father finds him and Michael in the gym playing, Billy stares his father in the eyes and continues to dance, defying the withering disapproval on his father's face. Dance gives him the strength to stand up to the resistance and repressive forces in his life. Thus, a hobby that started as a shameful secret turns into a powerful and graceful protest against the oppressive forces at work in the neighborhood.
What seems like a catastrophic rupture, the revelation of his dancing abilities to his gruff father, becomes a redemption for Billy. It seems as if the moment that Jackie sees Billy dancing with his gay friend in a gymnasium will result in a homophobic crackdown, but surprisingly, it convinces Jackie that his son has actual talent. Rather than driving Jackie further away from his son, Billy's dancing converts Jackie into a believer, and he wants to take over in helping Billy to achieve his dreams. Billy's talent and expression through dance are enough to heal the disconnect between him and his father.
Billy's talent, which had seemed like such a divisive and catastrophic part of the Elliot family's life, turns out to be a force for connection and understanding, not only between Jackie and Billy, but between Jackie and Tony as well. When Jackie crosses the picket line in an attempt to make money for Billy's audition, Tony confronts him and the father and son, who have been driven apart by their differing attitudes towards the strike, are rendered vulnerable around the question of how to help Billy. They confront the resentments that have been building between them, and find connection through a shared project of helping Billy achieve his dreams.
While Billy has shown enormous promise as a ballet dancer, a big fish in an exceptionally small pond, when he arrives at the ballet school for his audition, he is intimidated by both the level of scrutiny to which he is subjected as well as the grandeur and refinement of the world of ballet. Not only is Billy among young dancers who are just as talented as him, but young dancers who have come from far more supportive and privileged family backgrounds. Billy's humble origins are put in contrast as soon as he and Jackie climb the grand staircase, through when the posh boy talks to him in the locker room, all the way to the impersonal and critical murmurs of the judges watching him dance.
