Social Dance TV creator and Instagram celebrity: The success story of Kirill Korshikov

A passionate dancer and creator of the worldwide-known Social Dance TV channel, Kirill Korshikov never stops his beloved activity, filming dance events all around the globe. It's easy to spot him by camera equipment in his hands. However, if we went back in time, we’d have found that it wasn’t always like that.

Being just 17 years old, Kirill made his way into the country's best 30 Latin American ballroom dance couples. A year later, while studying in an IT university he created his own dance school. First he specialized in ballroom dance, later he continued with other disciplines such as salsa while gradually improving his skills in social dancing. As years went by, Kirill moved to another Russian city Rostov-on-Don, upgrading his knowledge of photography all the time. Then in 2011 the situation changed.

'These were the three most important things: dancing, photographing, and IT,' explains our hero. 'I realized how online communities and media function; I was always able to make a good photo and loved dancing since childhood. My skills reached the necessary level and that's how things came up!'

When he attempted to make a few video recordings while shooting photo at a dance event, he realized it was his calling. The videos became a hit, so Kirill Korshikov started to experiment with videography. He started voyages abroad, attending dance events around the world and keenly filming them. In this way, four years later the video collection grew considerably and he decided to share it with his fellow dance community. An Instagram channel was created and made a rapid success. Dancers from all around the globe got a chance to access the channel and to see an impressive compilation of dance moves and styles. What's more, they continued to send their own recordings to increase and complement the channel's already large collection.

That's how, in 2015, a new video channel named Social Dance TV came into being.

The Scope.

Now SDTV is one of the most well-known and respectable social dance thematic media sources. Channel’s envoys travel abroad, film all the world's major dance events and festivals, and give social dancers from different countries the opportunity to express themselves on video and share it with others.

‘Dance is a live entity, and it's thrilling to watch its evolution through our videos. Our mission is to portray this chronicle,’ explains 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.'

According to Kirill, only experienced dancers themselves can fully understand and catch the body language, the passion and moves on camera properly. Social dancing is quite complex, and such experience is critical, that's why all the channel's videographers are also passionate and seasoned dancers.

Instagram is the best advertising

Many may assume that paying professional promoters to skyrocket your popularity is a must, however, SDTV never did it. At the time when the channel was created, Instagram had no means of promotion to achieve quick fame. However, thousands of viewers across the world supported the channel with likes and comments, helping it grow larger and reach success.

Another important thing that explains the fast growth of Social Dance TV is the scarcity of thematic channels, with almost no competition at all. Some sources occasionally posted dancing videos of all kinds; however, there was a vacant niche for an exclusive social dance channel. 'We were different from those viral dance channels. 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,’ points out Kirill Korshikov.

Along these lines, the channel gradually developed to an influential media platform tending a devoted audience, and a fine promotion tool itself, bringing joy and dance knowledge to people from different countries and places.

SDTV lives not only by filming dance events and festivals. Many dancers use the tag #socialdancetv while recording their own dancing experience, having the opportunity to show up on the channel for free. There are only a few requirements:

- authenticity of the dance, appealing to the channel's audience;

- no watermarks or third-party logos;

- a recording must comply with the copyright licenses and permissions.

And the best social media platform

'SDTV is not only Instagram and YouTube accounts and a promotion platform. It is also a digital agency with elements of mass media. It produces a full advertising cycle of a festival and even carries out some management. We help dance festivals explore an international market and widen their audience,' points out Kirill.

So, how to get in the shot?

‘To become a persona on a channel's video, one just has to be a passionate dancer and thrive on the dance floor’, tells us one of the videographers. ‘Shooting videos or taking photos is similar to hunting in many ways: you should patiently await until the opportunity arises, and most important, you must feel that sensation of the dance, the incomparable thrill of being on the dancefloor and following the music’.

What's the plan?

Members of the Social Dance TV team say that they would visit as many countries as they can, searching the world for amazing dance skills and sights to get on camera. They go for uniting dancers all over the world and delivering social dancing as a lifestyle. Most significant is to capture the best dance moves on film to pass them on to future generations of passionate dancers.