A New Theory of the Microdance

Towards Understanding How Mimesis Is Compacted, Packaged, and Communicated in the Online Era

This is a work in progress, be nice, share feedback!!

This essay is dedicated to studying what I have termed the “microdance,” a form of dancing popular in microblogging/vlogging platforms such as TikTok but which nonetheless exist outside these media. in particular, I term anything as a microdance that which is designed to be easily picked up and repeated by fans, which in turn is spread virally online.

While microdances are not necessarily new, their ever-presence in modern dance production highlights a new trend in dance that inspires new questions. In particular, what about the microdance is so appealing to artists and “content creators” online? Subsequently, how do these forms arise in dance production and how do they differ from previous choreographic strategies? This essay will seek to answer these questions as well as lay down a foundation for understanding these new dances.

Like many people, I have watched compact choreographies online; seen dancers practicing their favorite new moves from the famous singer dujour and have enjoyed both the successes and failures of both endeavors. The modern era of dance production is rife with these new portable dances that are quickly communicated between amateurs and professionals alike. Among this latest crop of microdances, the new choreography for singer Sabrina Carpenter’s Tears is of particular interest to me. On the small-form video social media platform, TikTok, a creator that goes by the moniker OWEN, posted about his journey learning the steps to Sabrina Carpenter’s Tears “dance break” routine. From the offset, nothing might stand out to someone already familiar with microdances. Naturally, as a dancer new to the scene, learning a new choreography will take practice and time. Mistakes and frustration will naturally come about through the learning process. What stands out to me in particular, is the joy that came with learning this new dancer for this content creator.

This joy, which is shared by many new dancers, sits at the crux of microdances. Not only is there joy in learning a new form, but also being able to share in the broader cultural zeitgeist that the microdance lives in. Put differently, it matters both that a microdance is recognizable as a microdance as well as the context in which is arises, reproduces, and is ultimately shared by artists. It comes as no surprise then, that when a new dancer is able to reproduce this dance, that - even if only tangentially - their art-product shares in the same cultural moment as their favorite artist. This is not dissimilar to an amateur singer successfully singing a hit song at karaoke night, but its ramifications are differently profound.