What is a social media DANCE influencer?
By: Jake Tribus
Tags: Social Media, Dancer, Dance, Instagram, Influencer Marketing

So we’ve talked a whole lot about what a social media influencer is and their role in this crazy age of social media platforms, online advertising, and virtual reality. Hopefully, I’ve given you enough information to understand how an inlfuencer makes their living, and how they ‘play the game’ of being a brand ambassador. This people are making BANK on these brand deals, and by keeping a consistent and quality stream of content flowing to their audiences, they gain more followers by the day. This therefore increases their chances of exposure to brands and deals (aka more money). These influencers can market themselves in different categories like beauty, health, fitness, food, travel, fashion, and gaming (I mean the list goes on). What I find interesting is that because your personality is attached to your online platform, even if you and 50,000 other influencers are marketing the same products and services, you can still find that ‘niche’ place in the marketplace because of how you individually brand yourself and present your content to your audience. This is one of the most intriguing — and I would assume attractive — aspects of becoming a social media influencer; getting to create content your way, having fun with your business ideas, and getting compensated for trying product that you enjoy.

Now, there is a newer field of social media influencer that has become increasingly popular in the last couple of years, and that is: INSTAGRAM FAMOUS DANCERS. Constantly posting videos of yourself performing choreography from renowned dance teachers sparks attention from a wide range of people. This allows for quick increase in followers and popularity on Instagram. And, oh boy, how people are catching on.

Los Angeles is obviously a huge hub for commercial dance, and also a hub for dance training studios. These studios offer classes to professional dancers attempting to train, audition, and get their names out there in the industry. In the last few years, there has been a trend in choreographers hiring videographers to film people in their classes performing the choreography so they can post their work on their Instagram page. What originally was a way for choreographers to gain popularity and exposure through their work has now also reciprocated the benefits for the dancers in the videos. Dancers like Josh Killacky (with 558k followers) and Jade Chynoweth (2.2 million followers), and choreographers like Brian Friedman (584k followers) and Yanis Marshall (894k followers) have been steadily gaining followers and engagement with their audience through their dance videos. With thousands of followers, they are the best of the best in terms of commercial dance in Los Angeles, and their followers expect high quality content from them on a consistent basis. Plus, they aren’t hard on the eyes by any means…the point is: they have leveraged social media to gain fame in their art form.

With every post, a dancer like Josh or Jade can collect tons of engagement from their followers by showing off their sweet moves, tagging the choreographer, the studio where they are dancing, the artist who sings the song, and occasionally, the brand of dance wear they have on their bodies. All of this social connectivity boosts their chances of getting exposure and brand deals, perpetuating the social media fame. The dancers become social media influencers through the brand deals that they attain, which can include companies of dance wear, sports drinks, etc., and they are similar to athletes who are “insta-famous.” Some of the sponsored content that I have personally seen from these dance influencers include products from Puma, Nike, and even Coca-Cola! These dancers and choreographers are aligning themselves with big-name brands, and therefore gaining recognition from people who may not even be a part of ‘the dance world’ (as we like to call it).

Because of this increasing fame, dancers with large followings on Instagram are more likely to be hired for work. Projects that are attempting to gain popularity and reach more audiences will try and use these dancers and leverage their following to promote a project. I see this as both a good and bad aspect of being a famous Instagram dancer, but we can get more into that next time.

As we discover the pros and cons to being a social media dance influencer, I hope to help you understand how the dance industry is both positively and negatively impacted.