Dancers, Poofs and Princesses: The Children in Billy Eliot Soon I will put up an essay I am thinking about regarding the child characters in Billy Eliot: Michael, Debbie, and of course, Billy himself.  Each of them deals with a harsh familial/societal situation in a unique way, and I believe this tells us a lot about the nature of childhood, both universally and during the specific historical/geographic period represented (ie, working class England, and in the midst of the miner's strike of 1984.) Watch this space...