With an Instagram bio reading “Loving through Dance ♥️; Dancer 🩰 Teacher 👰🏽♀️ Husband ✝️; 🌎 Dance Accepts Everyone 💯,” lifelong ballet dancer and Instagram-verified content creator Adam Boreland has amassed an impressive social media following (almost 200 thousand followers on Instagram and Facebook) by sharing his passion for dancing and his message of acceptance, inclusion, and love.
Many social media users were drawn to Boreland’s platform after watching video clips of him dancing in front of the local Arlington Heights Chick-fil-A, where he works as a manager. That’s right everyone, he’s the Chick-fil-A dancer.
Though he admits working on his feet for hours each day can be tiring, Boreland enjoys how his job provides daily opportunities for socialization and connection with customers and employees. He even likens his regular interactions to stage performances, something he evidently enjoys and excels at.
“I connect with so many people, and that’s fulfilling for me […] I love people, so it’s a fun way to be social, meet people, and expand my circle,” Boreland said.
Boreland’s ballet journey began when he discovered his natural flexibility and artistic prowess in fifth grade. He loved the feeling of being the center of attention (who doesn’t?) and so joined a musical theater “Cats” camp, where he got a taste of life on stage.
“I wanted to be the center of attention. I wanted to be the biggest ballet star,” Boreland said.
He began dancing with tap lessons but soon shifted his focus towards ballet, which continues to be his primary style of dance.
He does admit, however, that his favorite dance style is not ballet but contemporary/lyrical and across the floor, and that he finds ballet to be the most challenging style of dance.
Though he possessed the artistic ability, Boreland chose against dancing professionally in favor of physical longevity. Dancing professionally is an incredibly difficult job, both mentally and physically, and it can cause severe, often permanent damage to young dancers’ bodies. Like in any other professional sport, a ballerina’s physical “prime” is somewhat ephemeral, making it all the more difficult for ballet dancers to maintain their physical ability as they get older.
Boreland hopes to retain his flexibility and talent for as long as possible so that he can continue dancing for the rest of his life, something he has always intended to do.
“I want to be great, and I’m going for famous,” Boreland said.
Throughout his artistic career Boreland has danced many lead roles, his favorite being the owner of the Moulin Rouge cabaret in, you guessed it, “Moulin Rouge.”
He has also played the prince role (a lead) in the classic Nutcracker ballet a number of times, but, surprisingly, this has been his only full prince role.
This past November Boreland performed a small production of “the Nutcracker” with his wife and a cast primarily comprised of teens and adults, many clips of which can be found on his social media.
“I think that every company should have bigger dancers, older dancers, men on pointe, men dancing with men, and women dancing with women. I feel like it should be all combined,” Boreland said.
Another source of pride for Boreland is his dance group on Facebook, which is the largest Facebook dance group in the world with over 410,500 members.
He uses this platform to highlight the need for growth and change in the ballet industry, arguing that, though classic ballet productions like “Swan Lake” are beautiful, the ballet world needs to find new ways to create stories that real audiences can relate to.
“We need new stories. We want–we need–real stories,” Boreland said.
In the entertainment industry ballet is often overlooked, potentially due to its traditional practices and stories that have not evolved at the same pace as the rest of the industry. Think about it: Hollywood producers regularly develop new movies and television shows, and singers write new songs, both with the goal of connecting to an increasingly diverse (and often young) audience. In the ballet world, however, companies seldom produce new stories, often referring back to classics like “Giselle,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” and of course “The Nutcracker.”
“I know the ballet world, and it changes very slowly,” Boreland said.
Boreland shares his message of growth on Instagram, where his primary account has over 130 thousand followers, including (but certainly not limited to) famous actress Kristen Chenoweth. (And Chenoweth is close with Ariana Grande, which basically means that Boreland and Grande are best friends.)
Boreland says that he is a big fan of Carrie Underwood, and his main goal in life is to meet the famous singer and inspire her to follow him on Instagram. Well, that’s not really his main goal, but it would be pretty cool.
2025 will be Boreland’s 10-year anniversary of posting on social media, and he plans to completely revamp his platforms to commemorate this momentous occasion. He also plans to start posting on YouTube soon.
Boreland teaches dance lessons and was a guest-performer with Margo Dean School of Ballet on Friday, December 6. He will speak at a convention in Georgia in July of 2025.
Boreland says that posting on social media has changed his life in innumerable ways, and he urges everyone, especially those interested in a career in entertainment, to use social media to their advantage and strategically grow their platform.
“Social media has given me so much confidence because I found a community that supports me in who I am and who I want to be,” Boreland said.
Boreland believes that social media has allowed him to connect to all people and spread his message of love. He argues that dance is not only about aesthetic beauty, but also about love, passion, and accepting everyone of all demographics and backgrounds.
“Loving through dance becomes possible by loving yourself as well as accepting what you’ve been given and making it your own,” Boreland said.
Inspired by the quote “What is for you will never pass you,” Boreland knows that he is destined for greatness in some form or fashion, and he feels as if he has been prepping for “something big” his entire life.
Evidently, greatness is not far away.
“People are always like, ‘Who is your favorite male ballet dancer?’ and I’m like, ‘myself.’ I feel like we should be confident enough to say that we inspire ourselves sometimes,’” Boreland said.
And rightfully so.
