nanushka Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 (edited) Harrison Ball of NYCB has an interesting post up today on Instagram (copied below), in which he announces that he is unfollowing everyone and intends "to use my account largely as a platform to show my work and to relate to my profession." I'm wondering how that will work out, as it seems like a lot of the reason audiences like to follow dancers on social media is because there's at least a degree of interconnectedness (with perhaps some portion of that degree being illusory). Presumably, when he says "show my work," Ball has his audience in mind. On a contemporary platform that's so structured by interactions, can an older style of one-way communication from artist to audience be sustained and impactful? ETA: Of course, just because he's choosing not to follow anyone doesn't mean he can't interact with fans, etc. in other ways on the platform. But it seems to indicate a pulling back of sorts. Edited July 19, 2019 by nanushka Link to comment
Helene Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 My first reaction was that this is similar to blogs where comments are turned off. Social media is not the standard place for this model, but it is where the traffic is. His reasoning is a lot different, though. Link to comment
Drew Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Sounds like a thought-through and thoughtful decision. Link to comment
sandik Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Yes, a thoughtful response. And social media isn't always the place we see that kind of consideration, which may be the point he's trying to make. I don't know him or his work especially well (ironically, most of what I do know I've learned here!) but we're in the middle of a vast social experiment, where we are transferring a great deal of our lives to the electronic sphere. I think it's smart of him to take this step and see how it turns out. Link to comment
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