Has dancing become performative now?

A recent video of singer Madonna dancing freely—hands up in the air and completely unconcerned about the phones trained on her—to DJ Anyma’s set at Coachella has triggered multiple reactions on social media. The loudest being how it’s a 67-year-old woman who’s dancing energetically while a largely Gen Z crowd around her stands still, their phones glued to the stage. “Is it illegal to dance at Coachella?” read a comment on a video livestream from the festival.

While the Coachella crowd might appear to have forgotten the joy of dancing for the sake of it, in my corner of the world, everyone is dancing just so they can make a slick reel of it and flex those choreographed moves. I see it in the Zumba classes I attend. Students are quick to dismiss the trainer’s playlist if it isn’t up to date with the latest hits. Beyond that, there are constant requests to teach steps to a song that is all the rage now. If it was hit songs from Dhurandhar over a month ago, last week, it was learning moves to a trending Spanish track.

The class invariably ends with a quick 30-second reel, which often entails two-three takes just so it looks good enough to be shared. I enjoy the process of learning steps to a popular song but there are days when the whole exercise—learning a routine then recording it to prove that you’ve kept up with the trend—feels exhausting. Has dance become something we only perform for validation?

Bengaluru-based artist and curator Masoom Parmar, 37, talks about the dramatic shift he has seen. “One major change is the rise of workshops built around specific songs. That existed earlier too, but now people come in specifically to learn a trending reel. A few months back, for instance, everyone wanted to learn the choreography for (Malayalam folk song) Kaantha, which was trending on Instagram,” says Parmar, who is a trained classical dancer.

This shift in priorities, he adds, is also reflecting in how professional dancers and dance companies are spending more effort and time on choreographing for short-form videos. “They create these short choreographies and perform the same on stage without understanding that what might look good on a handheld screen might not look as good on stage. The whole idea of choreography, and even how we understand dance, is changing,” he rues.

An almost-obsessive interest among people to learn the viral dance of the moment has given rise to a booming workshop culture. Unlike regular dance classes that focus on technique, these one-day workshops are informal. On offer is the simple promise that participants can learn the steps to a song in under 2-4 hours. While the choreography is enough to entice sign-ups, the real experience can feel underwhelming. Sonia Soney, a dancer and behavioural therapist, gives the example of a student. “She’d signed up for a workshop conducted by a celebrity dance influencer and returned feeling like she wasn’t good enough,” she recalls. “People look at these amazing videos and believe they can perfect the moves in 2 hours. They forget that these choreographers have trained for years. And that it takes days if not weeks to perfect a choreography.”

Parmar feels strongly about the half-heartedness of the approach. “I don’t see dance reels as a problem but I’d like to see enthusiasts go deeper and really invest in learning the art form. My hope is that they’ll one day wake up and dance with out worrying about who’s watching.” And perhaps that’s why Madonna dancing at Coachella strikes such a chord. She isn’t performing for anyone. She’s simply in the moment, dancing the way it was meant to be.