Touring with a star used to be a dancer’s dream. Now it’s all about getting social media followers.
At age 12, dancer Taylor Hatala was touring with Janet Jackson. At 16, she has reached an even higher perch. With 1.2 million Instagram followers, Hatala is one of the top dance influencers. She’s part of a new generation of performers who are redefining how the world sees dance.
And it’s no longer in the background.
Touring as a backup dancer for an artist like Jackson or Justin Bieber used to be a commercial dancer’s dream. Now, that kind of work is a steppingstone to an even bigger prize: a robust social media account.
Dancers who break through on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, an app for short videos, can reap personal, artistic and financial rewards far beyond the paychecks for executing someone else’s moves and pounding the stage behind a pop star. Internet popularity can be a dancer’s entree to choreographing and starring in her own viral videos, traveling the world as a guest artist and teacher, and inking lucrative brand deals and endorsements.
“It used to be that your résumé was a sheet of paper that you would hand in at auditions,” says Hatala, who specializes in hip-hop.
How to hook their fans. How to keep luring new ones. How to post top-notch, original work five or more days a week. How to balance awesomeness and relatability, the chief currency to a digital audience. That’s especially true at the younger end of the millennial spectrum, those 18- to 25-year-olds — so coveted by marketers, so difficult to reach — who want to see themselves in their heroes.
“Everyone in this industry is trying to figure out what goes viral,” Hatala says with a sigh. “Most of the time the videos that I put the hardest work into only get so many views. And a lot of the videos that have gone viral have just been, literally, me dancing and having so much fun in the studio, not expecting anything out of it. Or just with my dad and his phone.
“You have to stay on top of it. You have to be looking at your insights, and just see what your followers like.”
Analytics show what demographic they’re reaching, where their fans are, what posts keep their attention.
“They’re the first generation of dancers that combine the pixie dust and the data,” says Larry Shapiro, chief executive of artist management company Ensemble Digital
Studios. Among his clients is Kaycee Rice, 17, a hip-hop dancer with great energy and flexibility. She has more than 2 million Instagram followers and two YouTube channels, where, she says, she gains 200 to 500 subscribers a day.
“The difference between Paula Abdul at her start and Kaycee Rice is that Kaycee analyzes the data behind her videos, like engagement and retention rate,” Shapiro says.
This means Rice can get the brands that sponsor her — Nike, Under Armour, others — before more eyeballs.
“You have an entire generation around the world who identifies with her,” Shapiro says. “Kaycee is reaching 13to 18-year-old kids and shaping what kind of entertainment they like. So when she grows up and produces bigger projects, she’ll have fans whose values she’s shaped.”