I have been seeing a lot of dialogue about how young dancers do not know how to dance anymore and are going into professional settings, where they are to prepare a solo showing off their BEST dance capabilities in order to get a job or get into a dance school and they are doing trending TikTok dances.
As time goes on and as humans evolve in all aspects of life. Platforms and tools are being created to be easier and more accessible to all people from all backgrounds.
When I was growing up how I saw dance in the main stream was on TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance, Dance Moms, and via musical television shows like High School Musical, The Cheetah Girls and Glee. When watching these shows and behind the scenes content it was clear that all those performers had training and practice. Training and practice takes access and money. It takes privilege to go to your parents and ask to take dance classes.
Now with easy access to everyone’s lives who decides to share on social media, young kids can create dances and post them online, for other young kids to see and learn and do and post and get a lot of attention and validation from.
Dance is a social, communicative, community base act. That is done literally everywhere. On the street, on the bus, at school, on stage, in a field, etc. Regardless of where you come from or how much money you have, you can dance wherever and however you want and the includes online for millions of people to see.
The younger generation has created a genre of dance, using their recourses, derived from the familiar dances they have access to, for a specific platform and has earned a lot of success.
You can watch dancers on TikTok and not know their history. So if I’m a kid, with no training, and I see a dance going viral that is fun, and I like to move and dance with my friends, I’m going to learn the dance and post the video, and gain validation from the other millions of users who feel the same way.
It takes a level of cognitive thinking to do further research into the viral TikTok dancers like Jalaiah Harmon (Renegade), Keara “KeKe” Wilson (Savage), and Charli D’ Amelio to know that they all have formal dance training.
I categorize formal dance training as, training done in a dance studio in specific genres from a professional dance teacher who has also had years of training in the same setting.
I can tell, from my perspective, as a trained dancer that the majority of these creators are trained dancers. And I believe what they are doing is making dance more accessible for everybody. Meanwhile promoting themselves as a dancer creator. I see no problem with that. And the videos of them explaining their years of hard work and training is not going to resonate as much as the entertaining dance videos.
At the end of the day, the kids are not to blame. They just want to dance. And when it comes to dance education for the youth, kids don’t know until they are told. So when they go into auditions for dance programs because they want to learn more and actually develop their technique, I as an educator would still look for potential in the movement and then educate that TikTok dances in an in person audition setting are not going to translate.
But I want to highlight that dancing in your room for social media has become a lucrative industry and is in fact helping dancers book jobs and get brand deals to do more dance content. So if artists can pay their bills from this dance style and platform, I see that as a win. And once that TikTok dancer receives their first check for dancing they are now officially, by the textbook a professional dancer.
At the end of the day it comes to educating and not judging. Watching the new season of So You Think You Can Dance there was a judgmental tone from the judges when dancers would say they are content creators, and I think it is as simple as a “hey there is a big difference between the two but that doesn’t mean you can’t do both.”
During 2020 everything went digital and now in 2024 with the TikTok ban looming things are going to change again and as a species we will keep on adapting.
My advice to TikTok dancers who want to make the transition is to study, research and practice all styles of dance everywhere. And my advice to the dancers and dance teachers who are watching TikTok dancer in person trying to move into other spaces, is to keep on encouraging them.
I’m am always going to stay curious and try and keep my pulse on all the beats and movements happening in the space because that is what I like to do. I have a degree in drama and dance and I love TikTok dances and I love how the dances are accessible for all ages and professions, and I love the debate that has formed from the professional dance world because it highlights all the levels and layers of dance as a social construct.
Keep talking, keep watching, keep forming opinions!
Ciara.