Some dancers call them “fake” ballerinas. Some resent their lack of serious stage credentials to back up their success. Some feel their accounts are deceitful, since regular people don’t know the difference between a great dancer and a great dance model. But most ballet influencers aren’t out to trick anyone. They’re simply finding a new […]

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine attended a professional contemporary class one morning, and later that evening perused Facebook to find that the teacher had shared a video of her dancing a phrase from class. A successful and professional working dancer, she was horrified to see a video of herself online that she […]

Whether you’re using social media for promotional or personal purposes, it could be having a negative impact on your mental health—or your dancing. Nadine Kaslow, resident psychologist at Atlanta Ballet, tells dancers to watch out for these red flags: You spend all your free time on social media. If you find yourself on your phone […]

When Joffrey Ballet dancer Rory Hohenstein first created an Instagram account, the choice to make it private was merely incidental. This was before the platform became such a powerful tool for self-promotion in the dance world, and he was concerned about strangers having an inside look at his life and younger dancers seeing him use […]

When Instagram launched in 2010, few would have predicted it would become the identity-defining, I-can-make-a-living-off-this-thing behemoth that it is today. For dancers in particular, Instagram comes with a host of possibilities. Three dancers share how they translate double taps into career advancements—while thousands of people follow along. Alice Klock Alice Klock on Instagram: “Travel day […]

We’ve all been there: You see the craziest/most beautiful/oddest/wildest clip of a dance on Facebook and you simply have to see more. But do you actually get yourself to the theater and sit through a 90-minute performance? The consensus, at this point, typically seems to be: No. There is no clear correlation between a company’s […]

It goes against my core values to promote myself on Instagram, since the quality of my dancing matters more to me than tricks. Yet some of my favorite companies hire dancers with large followings on their IG accounts. Should I bother to audition at these places? I have strong technique, but I’m not Gumby. —Instagram […]

Choreographer Loni Landon is no stranger to the enticing power of social media. Instagram, for example, makes it very easy for Landon to connect with other artists. “I feel torn about it,” says Landon. “On one hand, I think it can be used in a really positive way. I have received so many jobs through […]