Indeed, even the actual steps in ballet tend to sound silly if you haven't seen how they look. But an entrechat is an electrifying sight. The entrechat , I learned, goes quite far back in dance history and probably predates ballet. But to be there in the class yourself is utterly different and beyond anything that can be conveyed by a description. I'm going to try, however.
Men find their way into ballet in various ways.
The history of ballet records many cases in which men got into it only because they were pushed into it. This happened to George Balanchine, who was accepted by the Imperial School when his sister went to audition and who hated it so much that he ran away and had to be sent back. Edward Villella was also pushed into ballet because of his sister, and he hated it, too. But ultimately both Balanchine and Villella were seduced by the art. Some men also go into ballet for the sake of the exercise.