In Conversation with Julian MacKay: Social Media and the Arts

Dec 22

The use of social media in the arts can be both a blessing and a curse: on the one hand, YouTube makes it possible to watch – and learn from - performers all over the world. Instagram enables artists to showcase their work; fans can follow their favourite dancers or musicians and learn about their work while connecting with their unique personalities. On the other hand, especially for young, aspiring artists who are still training, craving “likes” and thousands of social media followers can lead to a self-centred obsession with image. This can be counterproductive if it comes at the expense of the slow, thoughtful process of artistic apprenticeship that initiates budding dancers and musicians into a long tradition while gradually helping them to find their own, individual voice and artistic depth. There is also the possible frustration factor: while some might find carefully curated social media images inspiring, others might feel discouraged, convinced that they have no chance to achieve their dream because they were not able to flawlessly play a Paganini caprice by age five, or turn eight perfect pirouettes at age six. TWoA talked to principal dancer Julian MacKay about the opportunities and challenges of social media use in the arts: in addition to inspiring an impressive 180K following on Instagram, together with his brother Nicholas, he has founded MacKay Productions, a production company that, among other things, supports dancers and dance institutions with their social media presence.

MacKay Productions

Julian moved from the USA to Russia when he was eleven to train at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. He used Instagram primarily to stay in touch with friends until his career at St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Theatre started picking up. He realized that the photo and video material he received after a performance were not just a great tool for correcting his mistakes but might also interest people who weren’t able to attend a performance. Around the same time, his brother Nicholas, who had trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and the Vaganova Academy, quit dancing after a knee injury and turned towards photography. Julian realized that his brother had a special ability to capture him in motion because he knew everything about ballet. Eager to support his family throughout his father’s battle with cancer, Julian started to take along Nicholas whenever he was invited to perform at a gala: “I realized quite quickly that if you had a good image and a good brand and high quality content, maybe next time when you went to that same performance, more people would want to see you dance and so you can ask for a higher fee and maybe they could sell more tickets and it would better for everyone.” The brothers slowly realized that a lot of other dancers and people in the industry needed a specialised company able to support dance and ballet based on a deep understanding of the art form. They decided to found MacKay Productions together. Amongst other things, the company has done the social media marketing of some big dance companies and worked with big brands collaborating with ballet dancers.

Guiding Principle No. 1: Respect

Whether you are using your social media account for private purposes only, or because you need to develop a social media image for professional reasons, your guiding principle should be respect: “I think the most important thing is definitely respect. When you join a new theatre, or you started a new school, the most important thing is to respect the people that have already been there. Respect the history that has come before you. And I think the reason why that’s important is because hopefully in the future, if everything goes well, you become a part of that history.”

Real learning comes first

In today’s competitive, digitalized world, building a brand can be an important way for artists to distinguish themselves from the competition: “For social media, it’s hard, because building a brand is difficult. You have to focus on your strengths and be able to identify them, those specific things that will make you unique, that will make you stand out against your competition. But at the same time, the more understanding and respect and learning goes on as well – that is really important, because that’s truly what you grow from. There is social media and then there is real life. You can create a wonderful image on social media but with ballet and dance, you still have to go on stage and actually perform and give that show. And I think that especially for students starting out, that is very important, to balance those things. To learn as much as you can and develop as much as you can, whilst still trying to maintain that brand and image.”

Be honest – but don’t share everything

Another social media challenge consists of presenting yourself in an honest way while avoiding cringe-worthy moments of sharing too much information: “It’s a balance. A lot of people nowadays try to develop a persona on social media that is genuinely them. The hard part about that is that we all have good days, and we all have bad days. If you live your entire life on social media the way you live in real life, it becomes something that is very difficult to maintain. It’s very difficult to accept: ‘Oh, I did a bad show today, it didn’t go well, and I shared that with everybody, and everybody also hated it.’ It’s an important balance. There are a lot of wonderful things about social media and a lot of truth that can come through, but just like any brand, you have to develop it the right way. I think for me personally, it has always been something that I have tried to build on respect, understanding and communication. If I do have something that I am really worried about or something that is going on in my life, I try and share it, but to an extent that I would share it with somebody that I don’t know. Not necessarily sharing everything with everyone, because everybody has their own opinions. I think that is when it becomes a bit difficult for this younger generation.”

Quality: build something that you want to be

What strategy guides Julian on social media? “Everybody of course has their own strategy, but I think mine is: just quality. I try to keep quality of the actual content, the photos, the experience, because then, hopefully, when you come to a performance or you meet me in real life, that is the same experience that you have. And I think that is probably the biggest thing that I would share: you want to be building something that you want to be.”

Remember: you are part of a bigger whole

Before social media, famous cultural institutions thrived on a certain sense of mystery. Ballet or music students would walk past the building of a theatre, famous ballet school, or conservatory, looking up with longing and wondering what went on behind the walls. Today, these institutions must come to terms with the fact that they have little, to no control about how their inner life is represented in the private social media accounts of its members: “You have a lot of older institutions, especially in the ballet world, and in the theatre world that are not necessarily used to every single dancer having their social media account and using it in different ways. That’s a very modern challenge for current theatre directors.” Julian feels it’s crucial for dancers to develop an understanding of all aspects of the ballet and theatre world, and to fully understand how a production is put together and how these organisations operate: “I think you then slowly start to understand how things work in the ballet world, in the theatre world, in this industry as a whole rather than just your part in it. When you have that larger thinking you realize, well, if I share that photo that’s unflattering of the other dancer behind me, and I look really good, it isn’t just a personal relationship that you are affecting but also maybe a company’s brand, or the marketing material of a show, and the choreographer’s reputation. And so, it’s something that is quite delicate.”

For Theatres: Sharing is Caring

At the same time, in the digital age, theatres are competing for their audience against social media giants and streaming services: “Even the biggest theatre isn’t as big as a small YouTube video.” Theatres therefore cannot afford to neglect the digital world: “It’s definitely very important to be able to share as much as possible from a theatre in terms of shows, and dances, and content, because you are competing with every other medium out there. I think if you don’t compete with it, it’s something that becomes vintage and antique, which is totally fine, there are a lot of wonderful antique vintage things. But they are not the most popular all the time, or they are not the most widely visible. The best thing about dance and ballet is that it can be understood by anyone, so I think the sharing of it is definitely very important and it needs to be done - but it’s about how you do that.”

Professionalizing Social Media Branding

Julian is ultimately talking about professionalising social media branding to ensure that quality content will benefit everyone - from the individual artist to the institutions, the audience, and, ultimately, the arts as a whole: “The world that I would like to see is a world where there are more people specialised in this thing. A lot of the clients that we have with MacKay productions came from the fact that they don’t know anybody else to call or they couldn’t find a better solution to fill this gap. I would love to see more on that side of things and more the approach: when you do come to the ballet, you know not only about the production of Swan Lake and the choreography, but also that the last swan in the line of swans loves Frenchie dogs and that she has this wonderful artistic side of her where she paints. I would hope to facilitate and support that that image that she has a dog lover and painter is of the same quality as her performing on stage as a ballerina, because it is a full brand then. You realise that people are not just ‘the swan’ one day and then something else, they also live this life and are full artists.” Ultimately, in today’s world, sharing the artform with as many people as possible in an intelligent way will hopefully lead to a desire to see more of it – at live performances in theatres.

Christina Ezrahi