NYC Ballet Enacts New Social Media Policy for its Dancers

Dancer Sterling Hyltin signs autographs at the New York City Ballet & the School of American Ballet's The Nutcracker fam...

View Full Caption

Amy Sussman/Getty Images

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — The New York City Ballet is enacting a new social media policy after one of its dancers took some jabs at choreographers and other co-workers on Twitter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"Because social media usage has dramatically increased and will continue to do so, like many organizations, the company is exploring the development of social media guidelines for all artistic and administrative employees with respect to their professional lives," Katherine Brown, executive director of the NYCB, said in a statement cited by the Journal.

The policy change was enacted after Devin Alberda, a member of the NYCB's corps de ballet, made a joke in reference to his boss' drunken driving arrest.

"Thank goodness riding the subway while intoxicated isn't a misdemeanor offense." Alberda tweeted, according to the Journal. Alberda's tweet, which reportedly included the hashtag "#dontfireme," has since been removed from his twitter feed.

According to the new policy, dancers would not be allowed to post anything about their colleagues health or injuries or photos of company events or of people connected to NYCB without their permission.

In addition to the restriction of posts, dancers and other performers would have to explicitly state that their views do not reflect those of the company on their social media accounts.

The new social media policy would make the NYCB the first performance company in the country to adopt social media practices like those of private companies, according to the Journal.