DANCE IN LA

How Social Media Can Support Your Dance Career

March 28, 2025 /

Social media has a bad reputation for many good reasons, but today, I want to focus on the benefits, and how social media can support your dance career. With social media, dancers have been given platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok to shine, share their creativity – and to get hired for work! Dancers have become house-hold names and not just artists in the back of a video. YAY!

In a fast-paced entertainment industry that always has deadlines, tight budgets and short turn-arounds, social media has become a huge place for castings to be made. You definitely don’t always need an agent or an audition to be booked. A solid social media platform can be enough.

Maybe you’re thinking: “WOO, I love Instagram, I’m thriving on there!” or maybe you’re thinking: “Oh sh*t, I don’t know how to make my Instagram casting-friendly”.

Don’t you worry, here are my tips and tricks! If you want to take a look at mine it’s @mathilde.veje  

Your instagram bio

Your Instagram bio should have your basic information listed.

  1. Your real name/the name you go by
  2. An e-mail that it’s easy to contact you through.
  3. Your agency (if you have one!)
  4. Any relevant links (website, IMDB, linkedIN etc.)
Highlights

Make one for headshots, one for dance videos, one for your top work and one for special skills if you have any (I don’t lol).

Basically, you win if all the information a choreographer/director/casting agent needs to book you can be found easily. You lose if it’s difficult. They most likely have a ton of profiles they need to look at, so they will move on to the next and you’ll lose the job or opportunity.

Your main feed

Let’s talk about what we’re posting. I often hear: “Can I only post dance stuff then?” The answer is no. These days there’s more room for “dumps” or carrusels with 20 photos of your summer or your “Day In My Life” videos. It’s all good and it shows personality. But keep in mind that you are a brand and whatever you post will affect your brand.

But yes, you definitely need high quality dance videos of the styles you’re trained in. If you don’t have class videos, rent a studio and film some old choreographies. There also has to be high quality and good photos on your profile of your face. It sounds obvious, but I’ve been on the other side of casting before and I was suprisesd by how many dancers don’t have that.

I’m not gonna tell you what to post or not post, but if something is super messy (like drunk screaming videos etc.), I would suggest putting it on your “close friends”-story, if your intention is to look professional. Instagram stories are a great way to show personality and your every-day life, where I would say that your feed is more like your casting profile.

Pin To Profile

You have an option to “pin” three of your feed posts to the top of your profile. That means, that no matter what you post, these three posts appear first when people go to your profile. I would pin your favorite dance video, a job you’ve done that stands out to you and a photo/headshot.

This is all for casting purposes, because again: make it easy to see who you are and to book you.

“Does It Matter How Many Likes And Followers I Have?”

Yes and no.

When brands are casting influencers for specific products that they need promoted on social media, the casting notice often says “talent needs to have minimum X followers on their profile”. The reason? They want to sell a product and need the content to reach as many potential buyers as possible, so they need your following.

Is it important for actual industry dance jobs? Absolutely not. You can easily go ahead and hide your likes on your profile, if it’s something that affects you negatively. Likes and followers don’t matter, what matters is the quality of what you post.

People Who You Follow

You have two options: follow people who trigger you and constantly make you feel like you are not enough.

Or you can do the opposite.

Follow people who inspires you and who makes you believe that you can in fact do it too, whatever “it” means to you. Find the choreographers, dancers, music artists and creative directors that you look up to and study them.

There’s so much free, incredible information on social media, that can elevate your dance career.

“Mute” is a phenomenal tool if you don’t want to deal with the potential drama of unfollowing someone you know.  What you consume becomes a part of the house you live in, so be very mindful. Social media should be fun, it shouldn’t be something that makes you anxious.

“But I Don’t Want To Use Social Media, It’s Not For Me”

I’ve heard this statement a thousand times. First: You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. It’s your life and it’s your career. But if you don’t use social media, you just have to be okay with missing out on all the opportunities that comes with it.

Check in with yourself though: Is it because you’re scared? Is it because you’re afraid of being judged? Are you judging yourself? Are you afraid that people don’t like your videoes? That people don’t care about your art?

Most times, that’s where the real problem lies.

Because, you don’t have to constantly post on social media. If I hated it, I would make sure to post the abovementioned videos and photos, make the highlights, pins and bio and then not touch it again, ever.

You don’t have to post stories or make a post every week! You just need to have a profile with something on it. And remember, you get to decide how you want to use social media and how you want to showcase your creativity and art.

It’s supposed to be fun & you totally got this!

 

xoxo

Mathilde

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