Dance finds a digital stage

Beyond the stage

The theater's experiment with group livestreaming has already drawn a sizable online audience.

On Aug 5, it presented condensed and adapted excerpts from its classic dance dramas in a livestream. The broadcast attracted a total of more than 3.84 million views.

According to Xia Tian, general manager of the theater's livestreaming center, preparations for the center began in 2025, and it started broadcasting that December.

The theater works with a specialized digital media operations company, whose team handles technical support, content planning, choreography and day-to-day operations.

Xia previously worked in the commercial group livestreaming industry. In his view, professional performing arts troupes have two major strengths: their dancers' solid technical training and their extensive repertoires.

"Some commercial group livestreams rely mainly on competitions between livestreamers and virtual gifts to attract attention. As a professional troupe, we want the performance itself to keep people watching," he said.

Professional dancers can also improvise in response to viewers' requests, a practice that requires both strong technical skills and an understanding of how online audiences communicate.

But professionalism does not necessarily translate into online traffic.

"One of our biggest challenges is balancing artistic quality with what works on the platform," Xia said. "Sometimes we put a lot of thought into choreographing a performance, but it still doesn't get the exposure we expect."

That challenge has pushed the theater to explore ways of reaching audiences beyond those already familiar with professional dance. One approach has been to collaborate with online influencers, hoping to introduce the art form to people who might otherwise never encounter such performances while scrolling through their phones.

For Xia, that effort is also a form of cultural outreach.

"I remember when I was young, performing arts troupes would travel to rural areas to bring performances to people who had limited access to them," he said. "Today, young people increasingly turn to their phones for cultural content, so again, we have to go where the audience is."

"We used to talk about 'bringing culture to the countryside'. To me, group livestreaming is that same idea in the digital age," Xia added.

guiqian@i21st.cn