City Ballet A-Twitter about poles - Wall Street Journal

New York City Ballet is called to become a performing-arts major companies first in the country to govern the positions of its employees on Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets.

And Devin Alberda, Member of the corps de ballet of the company, is part of the reason why.

After the news of his boss of the drunk driving arrest was made public, Mr. Alberda tweeted: "Thank goodness riding the subway while intoxicated is not an offence to offence," adding the hashtag "# dontfireme."

In an another tweet, it fun a character in a production with a reference to the presidential executive order that paved the way for the Japanese internment camps: "Yellowface character 2010 renewal of co-leads the magic flute the worst thing to happen to the community of Asian Americans for EO 9066.".

Many professional ballet dancers have Twitter accounts, complete the curtain on a cloistered world long with details on their process of warming backstage or this that they snack you on intermission.

But some, like Mr. Alberda, went further, showing the kind of recriminations of the work day or jokes dancers may say to another, but which are rarely available publicly.

The company is now negotiating a policy of social media in the negotiations of contract with the union of the dancers, the American Guild of Musical Artists.

The Executive Director of the ballet, Katherine Brown, said: "because the use of social media increased significantly and will continue to do so, as many organizations the company explores the development of guidelines on social media for all artistic and administrative employees in their professional lives."

National Executive Director of the union said it saw no need for a social networking policy but would not object so that the rules do case dancers.

"In part, City Ballet is a public trust, and that employees have the right to use social media to rent or to criticize what it does, said Alan Gordon, national Executive Director of the AGMA.".

The proposed policy differs significantly from those at several large companies, although it would be among the first to be adopted by a company performing-arts major. Boston Ballet is to negotiate a similar agreement.

In New York, the policy would require dancers to include a warning that their comments are not sanctioned by the employer, according to a copy of a project reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

It would also prohibit them from disclosing another dancer injury or disease and validate photographs of corporate events, or to "persons committed in New York City Ballet business without their consent."

"In addition, to protect its interests, co-leads reserve the right to monitor postings that are accessible by the public or those who are not protected privacy on the company, its employees and its activities",... ", explains the project."

But then that comparable to policies governing employee online conduct, the rules would be a departure from the laissez-faire approach taken by the ballet up to this point.

This attitude appears if be moved, partly because cases such as Mr. Alberda, 24 years old, which explains its public tweets have caused "rumblings of discontent" in the administration of the ballet.

In an interview with the newspaper, he said its September tweet on the "character of Yellowface"in "The magic flute" prompted a member of the management to warn that it was "playing with fire" "criticizing ballet master in Chief (and choreographer Magic Flute) Peter Martins.".

Mr. Alberda also visited on Twitter for poke gentle company benefactor David Koch. Mr. Koch refused to comment on.

Musings on line of dancers can advance interests of the business by attracting a younger demographic, a goal, he tried to achieve with other tactics.

But transparency enabled by Twitter and Facebook is a new frontier for a profession which is often perceived as placing a premium on the orderly conduct.

Still, the proposal, if implemented, is unlikely to have much effect on one of the most bizarre stream Twitter co-leads related: a false account for Mr. Martins.

"A call to backstreetboys @ + @ NKOTB got asked to do this w us next season," the false Mr. Martins tweeted earlier this month. "That he considers."

Write to Erica Orden to erica.orden@wsj.com

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