Dance and Social Media
Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, etc. In this technological age, there are so many platforms available to share recorded dance to the world. Commercial dance is a term that is used to represent dance that is designed to be performed in a commercial setting, such as music videos, concerts, tv shows, movies, etc. Often times, it is choreography and dance that has the camera in mind. However, not all dance that is recorded is commercial dance, the same way not all commercial dance is performed for the camera. However, commercial dance is always choreography that is heavily crafted keeping in mind how the dance will be watched.
Social media has become a massive tool for sharing and creating dance in the past couple years. Now that we all have the tools and camera available to record ourselves, social media has become a valuable resource for sharing dance videos, sharing advertisements for events and performances, and allows you to connect with dancers from all around the world. It presents an opportunity to create a broader network and can also be used as a portfolio or marketing tool to obtain more work and opportunities.
However, on the other hand it can also create greater pressure to make dance that is in a way “picture perfect”. Whether that’s through recording yourself performing a phrase multiple times until it looks perfect or editing in a way that deletes the less satisfactory parts. I, myself, fall victim to this pressure of making my dance videos look perfect or create pressure for myself to satisfy the social media audience I am trying to cultivate. I very often will record myself in class and feel so good about what I performed only to watch the video afterwards and feel so despondent, in some ways ruining that experience and feeling I had prior to watching the video.
And yet, despite this, I find that recording and sharing dance through social media so valuable. In recording myself, I find that I am more aware of how certain moves are reading to a viewer and can affirm or enlighten me to find a new way to move. In sharing my work, I receive comments from and share my work with people who may have never gotten to see my work in person.
So then the question becomes can we find a balance between being able to share our passion and art with the world while not falling victim to the traps of social media. In my experience, it is helpful to limit when I record myself dancing and finding distinction between when I am in a producing space versus an artistic space. With that, it also requires me to ask myself if I am concerned with creating content or creating art. Content, in my mind, is concerned about intentionally crafting the media to reach the broadest audience possible. Art is concerned with the artist’s intention being present in the work when the artist themself view it. In order to find this distinction, I will often ask myself if what I am creating is what I intended or if I am letting outside influences impact the lens. And if the latter is true, I believe it is important to acknowledge who those outside influences are and if they are people whose opinions you value. If not, it might be an opportunity to ask yourself how much those opinions are worth.
While it may be putting it simplistically, this problem is complex and ever changing as the technological landscape changes as well. However, I find it valuable to discuss and discover how we can continue to build ourselves and create art within this world of social media. Having conversations about the role that social media should play in dance is imperative to ensuring that your dance and art can remain authentic.