Understanding Stage Fright Overcoming Stage Fright

The feeling of stage fright is felt by every dancer, from the newest dancer to the most seasoned pro. It is an automatic reaction to dancing in front of people. If you experience this feeling, it might be through nervousness, a fast heartbeat, sweating, trembling hands and feet, or going blank. The first part of dealing with stage fright is realizing it is an automatic physical reaction, not a physical symptom of lack of ability.

This is largely because performance anxiety is a manifestation of the fight-or-flight response. Your brain thinks you’re in a life-or-death situation, and it starts pumping adrenaline into your system. Adrenaline can affect your motor control, but it can also give you a much-needed boost of energy and concentration if you know how to channel it.

Confidence from Proper Planning

Perhaps the best way to overcome performance anxiety is to prepare well. Knowing your choreography inside and out will give you confidence. Practice your choreography regularly, both in sections and in full. Gradually build up your run-throughs until your movements become second nature. The more your body knows what to do, the less likely you’ll question yourself.

Mental practice is just as valuable. Visualize yourself going through the routine, the crowd, the flow of your movements. Visualize, and the pathways in your brain solidify further, the muscle memory gets stronger and you’re prepared before you even get on stage.

Deep Breathing Exercises: When you’re anxious, you tend to take short, shallow breaths. Consciously breathing slowly and deeply can help you calm down quickly.

Breathing exercises help with stage fright. Taking quick shallow breaths heightens your adrenaline and makes your nerves worse. Try to inhale for four seconds, pause for a second, and then exhale for four seconds. Do this a few times before you perform.

Whenever you play, breathe in sync with your motion. As you move freely or prolong a gesture, breathe in; whenever you have to do anything quick or percussive, breathe out. Not only does this help to calm your energy; it can also help your playing.

A Process Oriented Approach

One of the main reasons performers feel anxiety is that they often focus on evaluation, failure, and the audience. Redirecting your focus to what you are doing, such as how to perform movements, how to keep tempo, and how to convey emotions, should lower your level of anxiety. Performing becomes more organic and enjoyable when the focus is not on the outcome.

Mentally breaking up the routine into smaller parts and trying to focus on getting through one step at a time will keep things from getting too out of hand.

-Visualize yourself succeeding, as the mind responds powerfully to images. -Practice affirmations or positive self-talk.

Finally, visualize. Visualize yourself performing well. Visualize your movements, the speed of your performance, the look on your face, the look on the audience’s faces. This helps prepare you for the moment of truth, both mentally and physically. Combine visualization with positive self-talk. For example, you might say “I’ve got this.” “I am prepared.” “I am confident.” “I will make this performance beautiful.”

Reframe thoughts like “What if I get it wrong?” with more positive affirmations to boost confidence and decrease risk-aversion.

Grounding Techniques

First, you need to warm up. I don’t just mean vocally, but physically as well. Do some dynamic stretches, get your heart rate up a bit, and run through some of the choreography. Loosen up your muscles, get the blood flowing, and get your major muscle groups firing. This helps prevent missteps, which can heighten your anxiety.

Do a grounding exercise such as noticing the way your feet connect with the floor, or do a quick balancing exercise. This will root your body in the here and now. Using physical grounding techniques reduces the feeling of weightlessness or panic often felt with performance anxiety.

An Alternative: Harnessing Adrenaline as Energy

The adrenaline isn’t bad, in fact, it can be performance adrenaline. So use the adrenaline as part of your energy to move more crisply, sing more strongly, and dramatically project your emotion. Don’t let your physical response be something you need to overcome, but, rather, use it as something that helps. Some seasoned dancers can even talk about how their nerves let them know their bodies are on-line, ready to dance at their best.

Step 5: Performance Exposure

This can only be achieved by being able to perform in front of an audience as many times as possible. Start out with a small group of people such as friends, parents, siblings, classmates etc. Keep increasing the number of people and also the environment in which you perform. This will help you become more and more comfortable. You will also become accustomed to the lights, sound and space of the stage. All this will mean fewer unexpected things to contend with when you perform for a large crowd.

Mistakes happen to everyone. People who are able to acknowledge and own up to their mistakes will always be more well-received and respected than those who blame others for their errors.

Every act has its flaws, so if you allow for the chance that you might mess up, it won’t be as scary when you do. Develop the skill of how to recover from messing up. Just keep going, keep your concentration, and allow for transition time to regain your composure. In most cases, people will remember the confidence and transitions more than they will your tiny technical mess-up. Being able to recover will also teach you to have faith in yourself and not be so afraid of messing up.

Focus Under the Spotlight

In a performance, try to keep your attention on the sensations and kinesthetic feedback of the moment, not on the audience’s responses to your work. Try to stay with where your feet are, when you are moving, how you sound, what you are feeling, how you are breathing. This kind of anchoring keeps you from flying off into the world of worrying or judging.

Internalizing rhythmic counting, using discreet finger tapping, and choosing eye focus points in performance are other options to keep you engaged and more secure.

Confidence Over the Long Haul

There is no quick fix to completely eliminate stage fright. To work towards overcoming your stage fright, you need to continually practice your performance, perform as often as you can, and incorporate healthy mental techniques into your practice. Reviewing how your performances go, and trying to find ways to improve for the next performance will also assist in empowering you and strengthening your confidence in your ability to cope.

After a while, this idea develops into a feeling of confidence: when a dancer has faith in their preparation and has a positive relationship with their challenges, and approaches each performance as an opportunity to learn, their nervousness is not such an obstacle and is even a sign of preparedness and involvement.

The Importance of Community and Support

Surrounding yourself with encouraging and supportive training partners, teachers, and coaches can greatly impact confidence levels. Positive feedback, encouragement, and empathizing with others will make you feel less alone and anxious. It can inspire motivation, build technique, and remind you that nerves are okay.