The Social Dilemma: Being a Dancer in a Digital World
Illustration by Satyaki Chakrabarti
Did you know that 5.07 billion people have a form of social media?
That’s more than half of the world’s population.
Whilst I don’t intend to connect with 50% of mankind, I do wish to build a network of dancers from the comfort of my home.
The issue I’m facing is that I’m rubbish at this whole social media thing.
My posts do not get much reach and so naturally, I began thinking I was not a good enough dancer.
This was until I watched a podcast by Praveena in her iDenti-Tea series called ‘Don’t Get Lost in Social Media’ which touched on the difference between a dancer and a TikTok dancer.
I thought that being a dancer would make it easy to create a platform for myself, but I came to the realisation that being a content creator is an art itself which requires mastering.
Not all dancers can be great content creators.
Likewise, not all content creators who post 1-minute reels are great dancers.
But being in a digital world, great dancers have a need to navigate the skills needed to create a social media presence now more than ever.
A dancer’s social media presence is the equivalent to a CV in a corporate world.
Although I have been a dancer in training for 15 years, I struggled with finding my ‘social media identity’.
I couldn’t overcome my fear of posting reels of myself as they just weren’t perfect. My arm alignment wasn’t quiet diagonal enough in my seventh natadavu, my aramandi would drop as the jathi progressed and my smile was slightly crooked. The filters on my posts don’t match, the angles on my videos are strange and if you haven’t noticed by now, I am an overthinker.
So, from one dancer navigating the social media maze, to another, here are my top 3 tips:
Use your social media platform as a journal of growth. Post the imperfections so that you can come back to it in years time to see the progress.
Understand the Correlation Paradigm- AKA the numbers of likes on a post does not correlate to the level of dancer you are.
Create an opportunity out of everything- this could be a video of your studio practice or a picture of your salangai as your rummaging through your wardrobe. Start taking the mindset that everything can be content and start building your presence on social media.
Lastly, be kind to yourself.
You are training and this commitment is lifelong. You don’t ever ‘finish’ an artform so let your imperfections be a stepping stone to your journey in finding perfection. And if all fails, channel the confidence of content creators who post dance videos that really should not be tagged with #barathanatyamdancer or #indianclassicaldancer.
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