THE MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON DANCE AND DANCERS
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LITERATURE REVIEW
During the period of colonialism, cultural dances by the indigenous people were considered to generate ‘multiple and contradictory policies and attitudes’, sometimes even escalating to being an actual threat of rebellion. So much so, that in some states, legislations were passed, banning dance and drumming.
In the period after, dance was being used as a way to embrace your identity for some ethnic groups and nations since dancing can be considered as an ‘embodiment of cultural heritage’.
Today, with the rise of the media, dance is changing again. The global reach of dance has created fusions between styles; for example, by combining ballet with a cultural dance style from the Philippines. (Reed, 1998) The media has influenced dance, and vice versa. The media by spreading dance and dance by being used to promote ideas in the media.
In ‘Screendance 2.0: Social Dance-Media’ Harmony Bench (2010) argues that a new art has emerged from the fusion of dance and screen media: social dance-media. Dance has seen a rise in popularity online since 2005, since the “integration of video into social media platforms has enabled dancers and choreographers to create an internet presence for dance”.
Dance representation can be found as far back as the late 17th/early 18th century, however, the most noteworthy are the screen-based representations of dance. This could range from Hollywood, to Bollywood to all other types of dance films and tv shows. But since the rise of the New media (Web 2.0) a new stage has been given to Dance. Web 2.0 offers technologies where social media users can “share and comment upon others’ posted content, whether pictures, videos, or their own thoughts and ideas”. Since the rise of Web 2.0, dance has gone from being interactive, to being participatory. The web now encourages the recipients to engage with the content and contribute to it instead of just receiving the content and maybe leaving a comment. Participating in online dance content can be done by participating in flash mobs, recreating dance performances posted on social media or even follow online dance tutorials on platforms such as YouTube.
Wendy Oliver (2011) explains that the mass media has played a significant role in spreading dance as an art and entertainment, both through television shows like Dancing with the Stars, and through new media, like YouTube. Social media is also involved, with videos like Flash Mobs being shared.
The social media aspect is where Bench (2010) comes in again. She says that there are different types of participatory dance that Social Dance-Media is made of. One of the examples is Flash Choreographies. Contrary to popular belief, however, these aren’t necessarily Flash Mobs, which are ‘large gatherings of individuals at a specific time and place in response to a call sent out via email or text’. Flash choreographies started emerging in 2009 as a way to advertise businesses. While flash mobs are just large gatherings of people, flash choreographies are ‘highly choreographed affairs with high production values and employ professional choreographers and dancers’. They are made with the intention of being recorded and spread on the (social) media to gain publicity for a brand or cause. An example she mentions is the T-Mobile Dance (lifeforsharing, 2009). This flash choreography even went on to be a viral choreography, which prompted people to restage the choreography in all different places. The video going viral didn’t only mean that people were looking at the content and sharing it so more people could see, but the content was being engaged with. The entire concept of Flash Choreographies gained popularity since more and more Flash Choreographies were being made and this encourages viewers to engage with the content by trying to mimic the dance in front of a camera and share it online.
Not only is social media being used to promote ideas through dance, but it is also being used to create choreographies and performance. In her article ‘Dance, Pop Culture and Community’, Bergstein (2011) talks about how she used resources like social media to spread the idea of her flash choreography, and recruit and stay in contact with dancers willing to participate in it. She also used media to share the choreography with the participants. That way, everyone could learn it on their own without the choreographers having to explain it multiple times. She does mention, however, that, although social media had made it easier for them to organise the flash mob, it was treated as a liability as well when she was trying to organise a flash choreography at a University. Since students could share the idea of the flash choreography on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, which would make it less of a surprise, she strictly told them not to say a word about the flash choreography.
Although the media has been beneficial to the world of dance in general, dancers, amongst others, are being affected by the merging of dance and media. In ‘Pop Culture, the Media, and Dance: A Boon/Bane Dichotomy’, Engel (2011) explains that the media has had a significant influence on dance pupils in the dance classes. While the media offers a 24-hour access to online content related to Dance and Music, which makes dancing more accessible to them, there are negative effects. Two of the more prominent themes in current popular music and dance videos are sex and violence. The article goes on to explain that the media has made certain dance styles, like Hip Hop, seem more sexual and aggressive because of the influence of Music Videos, which makes the introverted students hesitant on participating fully in dance classes. As the article says, “pop culture will always be telling youth how they should move and dress”’, which means dance will be significantly affected by the media as they these two evolve.
There have been comments saying that (social) media does a lot of harm to dancers. In DanceInforma (Francis, n.d.), it is explained that dancers might post a picture of them in a particular pose, which will inspire others to try and copy them. This, however, can be very dangerous, since some people might not be built or able to do that specific pose and trying to do steps or a pose you aren’t ready for can lead to serious injuries. What people don’t realise is that, although the pose in the picture may look easy, there are hours of training leading up to being able to perform that pose at all.
Not only does (social) media contribute to the rising numbers of injuries in dancers, but the media also has a negative impact on dancers’ self-esteem. According to an article in the ‘Research in Dance Education’ Journal (Heiland, et al., 2008), ballerinas have always been more prone to insecurities about their weight. The study conducted for the article showed that a significant number of dancers are struggling or have struggled with an eating disorder. Now, Hollywood is adding the risk of insecurities, and eating disorders, in dancers with their idea that the ‘camera adds 10 pounds’. This creates extra stress for dancers who are planning to have a career in the entertainment industry since they think they have to meet a specific goal in order to be successful.
According to Nerini (2015), dancers have a ‘higher level of athletic internalization’ which means that they are likelier to look up to other women who are athletically fit. Even though there was no significant difference in BMI for both dancers and non-dancers, dancers showed a higher body-dissatisfaction. The study also concluded that although there was not a significant difference in media pressure on non-dancers and dancers, dancers are more prone to think negatively about their body because of the internalisation of the athletic ideal promoted in the media.
Which brings us back to how dance and media have influenced each other over the past few years. The changing landscape of the media is being affected by the world of dance, making space for advertisements from big companies, like T-Mobile, in the form of dance, to viral videos with dance as a content, to people trying to mimic those viral dance videos
The acquired information also suggests that there have been significant changes for dance since the rise of new media, although not all of them are positive. New styles of Dance are being invented because of the global reach the dance styles now have. This means that all dance content online is influenced by different cultures, even though they might be trying to copy the same dance routine. However, dancers themselves are being negatively affected by the changes. Even though they have access to online dance content all the time, their self-esteem can suffer from the athletic ideals presented in the media and they can even have physical injuries due to the expectation they have for themselves and the expectations they feel the media has of them.