Vulnerability, Leadership and the Big Social Media Slander…you are a Scam and Fraud after 25-30 years of working in the sector internationally.
After 25+ years of building this work internationally with integrity, I won’t let interns, dancers, and anonymous human beings on the planet, slander to define, my development built on real relationships, real results, and real people. The truth stands on its own. I am real for the small dance inside never dies.
My question is why is Social Media Reshaping the Dance Community and Threatening the Future of Performing Arts Leadership?
This week I thought about Social Media (Instagram) and how it was supposed to be a gift to the performing arts, particularly for the less accepted or often hidden voices of “Black Communities” who have struggled to find a space in the mass of commercial globalised Whiteness in the performing arts, dance.
For the first time, dancers, choreographers, and companies could bypass traditional gatekeepers, critics, television networks, established institutions and speak directly to audiences, reaching more people with a likeminded goal, ethos and justice mindset. A rehearsal video could go viral overnight. In theory, this democratization should have strengthened the dance community, widened access, and diversified who gets to lead the field into its future.
In practice, something more complicated has happened:
Alongside genuine opportunity, social media has introduced a layer of noise, misinformation, and reputational risk that is quietly reshaping who trusts whom, who gets to create freely, and who is willing to step into leadership at all. For example, I have a channel designed by a group of students and a former Intern from 2020-2021. Working as a intern for only one project.
The erosion of trust:
Trust has always been the invisible infrastructure of the performing arts, dance. A choreographer trusts a dancer or manager to represent their vision honestly. A company trusts a aspiring intern to uphold its reputation despite professional disagreements.
When fake news, doctored TV3 clips, or out-of-context posts circulate, whether from anonymous instagram accounts, competitive peers, or coordinated by fan communities, they don’t just damage one individual’s reputation. They erode the baseline assumption that public information about a performer or company is reliable. Directors start double-checking online reputations before extending offers. Companies grow cautious about who they associate with publicly. Dancers themselves become guarded, self-censoring even accurate posts out of fear of misinterpretation or attack.
I have several instagram accounts on my work and development, designed to slander the practice I have undertaken for 25 years in England, USA and Europe to effect the growth of InDance International organisation and its dancers seeking a place in Barcelona to discover magic within the art form.
The Chilling Effect on Creativity and Innovation:
Dance has always thrived on risk. Choreographic innovation requires trying something that might fail publicly, performers experimenting with unconventional technique, and companies staging work that challenges rather than comforts. This kind of creative risk-taking depends on a degree of psychological safety, the sense that failure or experimentation won’t be permanently and publicly weaponized against you.
Social media undermines that safety net. A single clip, taken out of context from a work-in-progress showing, (T.V3) can be mocked, misrepresented, or turned into a moment of ridicule before the choreographer has even finished developing the piece. For example the student project for “Pop Smoke” from 2025. No communication. No comment.
Moving Forward:
None of this means retreating from (Instagram) social media for me personally, as it remains one of the most powerful tools for the dance community, as it has visibility, education, and connection. But the sector cannot afford to treat Online harassment, Fake news, Bullying and Manufactured Drama as incidental noise. These forces directly affect trust, creativity, and the willingness of talented black individuals to step into leadership.
Building a healthier Media Ecosystem for dance means investing in digital literacy training, creating institutional support systems for artists targeted by misinformation, and perhaps most importantly actively working to shift public narratives back toward the discipline, artistry, and passion that drew people to dance in the first place.
The future of black performing arts leadership depends on protecting the space where genuine creative risk can still happen safely, and Harriet Macauley InDance International is the organisiation who has been chosen to do this. We are honoured and preparing!!
Inspired by current true events on social media and radio, 15th August 2026
