“Studies have shown that it is so therapeutic for men to take any form of dance,” notes Zoe Saldaña, who hopes to interest her three sons in ballet. “I’m not going to give up.”
Zoe Saldaña is best known as an acclaimed actress who is currently garnering awards buzz for her role in the film musical “Emilia Pérez.” However, the 2025 Golden Globe nominee for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role began her performance career as a ballet dancer.
“I did it for 10 years vigorously, sometimes six hours a day,” Saldaña tells W magazine as one of the cover stars of its 2025 “Best Performances” issue. “Ballet became my therapy, my medicine, my confidant, my solace during a time when I was going through a lot. My father passed away when I was 9, and my mom went through a really difficult time … So I started ballet, and I went full throttle into it because I needed it.”
Though Saldaña fully committed to the craft, she eventually realized she wasn’t destined to be a prima ballerina. “I didn’t have it in me to be in the corps. And there was also the curiosity of using my voice—the only instrument that I wasn’t using when I was dancing,” she explained. “Acting was a transition that I wanted to make.”
Ballet would ultimately lead Saldaña to early success in her acting career; she was cast to co-star in the 2000 ballet conservatory film “Center Stage.” As she further shared, the influence of her early training still informs her approach to work today.
“I still carry myself as a dancer. I am very militant when I approach experiences and projects and events in my life,” she said. “I am also very hard on myself. Dancers can be really, really hard on themselves. But that self-discipline—I haven’t experienced any sport or art form that teaches you discipline the way ballet does.”
Now, Saldaña hopes to get the three sons she shares with husband Marco Perego — ten-year-old twins Cy and Bowie and eight-year-old Zen — into ballet, too.
“I’m trying. I’m not going to give up,” she said. “Studies have shown that it is so therapeutic for men to take any form of dance at a very early age or throughout their lives because they carry so much tension and emotion.”
Saldaña’s statement bears out; research indicates dance can have physiological and mental health benefits for all of us, with at least one study indicating that it might be more therapeutic than other forms of exercise. However, according to a group of researchers from Finland, for boys and men, the benefits of dance can include expanded notions of masculinity and emotional intelligence
“Body awareness is part of humanity, and we increase our knowledge of the world through our senses,” said Dr. Kai Lehikoinen, a researcher from the University of the Arts Helsinki. “If people ignore the bodily dimension of themselves, it reflects negatively on their wellbeing. Everyone has equal rights to develop their own body awareness. That’s why men should get to dance, too.”
If Saldaña has her way, her boys will soon be acquaintances with the barre. “At least my twins are tapping,” she told W. “My younger one, he couldn’t give a sh— who is dancing. He wants to be Cristiano Ronaldo; he wants to be Lionel Messi. But my twins are very much like, ‘Yo, girls are in there? They’re dancing hip-hop?’ And they’ll dance.”
Volume 1 of W magazine’s “Best Performances” issue hits stands February 11, 2025.
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