"Fluttering Feet and Fingers that Tweet" Professional Communication on Twitter

175 million tweets are sent everyday and an interesting read of New York Times article 'Ballet Stars Now Tweet As Well As Flutter' opened my mind to how "Twitter is making ballet dancers human'.

The article highlights how "dancers are expected to speak with their bodies" but by sharing tweets about their life beyond what the audience sees on stage is "starting to change the public face of ballet."

There are a lot of major company dancers with twitter pages, some of whom have private accounts but many post publicly. By reading the tweets of and following such dancers it allows audiences to get to know the dancers beyond the characters they portray on stage. It allows the dancers to develop an independent fan base and share news and feelings with followers. This can cause conflict with company directors as their dancers are the face of the company so they do not want them tweeting information that may harm the company's reputation and image. When Sergei Polunin abruptly left The Royal Ballet his twitter page became a big discussion point for fans as it was the only point of contact people had with him when he disappeared off the radar. His "outrageous" tweets about alcohol and drugs shocked fans and followers. Many dancers have a line in their bio section of the profile stating that the views and opinions expressed on their Twitter are their own. Katherine E. Brown (City Ballet's executive director) said "We rely on them to use their good judgement and discretion".

I have had Twitter for a number of years now and at first I really didn't understand it, but now I check my twitter numerous times a day. Admittedly I would deem my twitter page to be my least professional social media profile. I feel it reflects more my personality and light hearted humour about day to day life as opposed to serious tweets about my professional life. However, I do not have many professional contacts following me on the site right now but in the future if I do I may want to consider more carefully what I am tweeting.

I follow companies and dancers I am interested in whom post information on upcoming performances and news in the company a well as backstage gossip. There are also accounts which post audition information and links to workshops and opportunities for dancers. In addition, there are dance profiles which post links to articles or critiques on performances which are interesting reads and help me to keep up to date with what is going on in the dance world. However, there is a character limit to tweets which limits how much you can say in each tweet. Therefore most pages with post links to their websites for more information or to the full post on their Facebook pages, so it is not completely necessary or beneficial to follow them on more than one social media site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/arts/dance/29ballet.html?_r=4