How a dance video account became a production platform

A well-known dance videographer and a top-rated Social Dance TV channel creator Kirill Korshikov is on a steady journey to dance festivals worldwide. It’s easy to spot him by equipment in his hands. And it wasn’t always like that.

At 17, Kirill had reached Russia’s top-30 couples in Latin-American program of ballroom dancing. At 18 he made his own dance school at the IT University he attended. First he taught ballroom dancing, later went on with salsa, while raising his level in social dancing. A few years later he moved to Rostov-on-Don, where he expanded his scope of interest with photography. It was 2011, when things came up.

‘It all was brought on these three whales: dancing, shooting and IT,’ – Kirill Korshikov says. ‘I knew how social media worked, had an eye for a good shot and I was a fine dancer. My schooling drew up with my skills,  and that’s how it all started!’

Once he tried to make some videos while taking photos at the festival he was engaged on. It was a hit, and along with photography Kirill tried himself as a videographer from later on. He started out travelling abroad, so his video collection boosted with fine dancing footage from all the international events he came over. Thus, by 2015 it grew decent enough to share to the dance community. An Instagram channel launched and elicited a quick feedback. Dancers worldwide received an opportunity to check dance videos from different countries in one place. And they proceeded to send their own party and workshop videos to expose through the channel.

That’s how the community began to shape around the platform named Social Dance TV.

Mission issues.

Now Social Dance TV is one of the most influential and credible media platforms in the world of social dance. It’s eminent for every dancer to get captured by SDTV’s videographer. A video they cast in is the finest souvenir from the event they travelled to. The platform draw together dancers and viewers, festivals and their attendees.

‘Dance is a live entity, and it’s thrilling to watch its evolution through our videos. Our mission is to portray this chronicle,’ says Kirill Korshikov. ‘The dance we captured in 2014-2015 is quite different to what we see now. Our crew tries to entrap these changes to share it worldwide through social media and to make them a part of community heritage.’

By Kirill’s belief, only those who dance can shoot dancing right. To catch the next dancer’s move a camera man must himself be a dancer. Thus, all the Social Dance TV videographers have a dancing background.

Instagram as a promo…

It may sound obvious that the channel used paid promotion tools somehow, yet it never did. Back in 2015 Instagram had no Direct messages for promoters and ambitious dancers to knock. The feedback used to come with thousands of likes and hundreds of comments only.

There was rather small competition, though. Several channels posted dance videos of diverse styles. ‘We were different from those viral dance channels,’ clarifies Kirill. ‘Social dance TV was always wholly about social dancing. If we had included all dance genres in our feed, we could have got way more subscribers, but we strive to specialize.

So, the channel evolved to a platform for addressing to a loyal audience and a fine promo tool as itself with the promotion as native as it could ever be.

Guys post not only what they shoot on events they’re in. Dancers that mention channel or tag  #socialdancetv on their own videos may find them in the channel’s feed. Unpaid. What matters is that the video must respect some conditions:

– the dance must be authentic, original and interesting to the social dance community;

– there must be no watermarks or third-party logos;

– the video shouldn’t injure any copyrights.

.. and as a mass media

‘Social dance TV is not only an Instagram and Youtube accounts and promotion platform It also is a digital agency with elements of mass media. It produces a full advertising cycle of a festival and even part of management. We help dance festivals explore an international market and widen their audience,’ says Kirill.

How to get in the shot

To get caught by the guys’ camera, one should be aware that it’s like hunting for them. ‘You must feel the air on the dance floor to shoot a fine video,’ explains a videographer. ‘Anyone has a chance. We shoot dancers in their natural flow. Those who captures sights, captures my camera. If you’re good-looking, if you smile, if you’re a fine dancer, if you have that “Sabor” – you’ll be in a shot, even if you’re unknown’.

What’s next?

The Social Dance TV crew says that their goal is to visit as many countries as possible. They strive to unite dancers all over the world and to deliver social dancing as a lifestyle. And the most important thing is to save the best dances in memory to make them last forever.