Keeping Boys Involved in the Arts

Yesterday after church I was speaking to a friend about her son.  He is now a young man in his 20's, but as a youngster he studied piano.  He had a natural aptitude for music and was quite gifted on the piano and had a beautiful singing voice to boot.  But music wasn't "cool" and by the time he reached middle school he quit studying music in order to play sports.  This conversation got me to thinking about how often this happens with boys.  It is harder to keep boys in music, drama, and dance lessons than it is to keep girls. Boys still feel the pressure to "man up" and play sports.

Looking over some of the arts related activities I am involved in.....

• Out of 25 piano students I teach, only 5 are boys.
• In my church's music ministry there is 1 man who participates
• The cello section of the Louisville Youth Orchestra's Repertory Orchestra has no boys
• The dance department at the Youth Performing Arts High School has 3(?) boys, maybe 4, and apx 40 girls
• The McClanahan School of Irish Dance has less than 5 boy dancers (and one is the teacher's son!) - there are no boys in the upper Championship level classes
• When I audition for a community theatre play, there is always 3 or 4 times as many women auditioning as there are men

I know this is merely an anecdotal view of things, but my guess is this is typical no matter where you are.  I would love to have some feedback on your experience with keeping boys involved with the arts.  Have you found a successful way to keep young men involved in music, drama or dance?  If so, please share with me your strategies!