Vimy Teacher and Director of the ESB Teacher Training Program, Janet Hagisavis, has held on to this timeless article from the Dance Magazine for many years. Unfortunately, the year of the article has been lost, but the message is still very relevant to our dancers, particularly as they head into exam and performance season!
The Personal You – by
Marian Horosko
Performance Anxiety – Dance
Magazine, December 19, ????
You’ve performed in
demonstrations, recitals, competitions, and auditions, and are probably
rehearsing for a Nutcracker season. How
does performing feel to you? Do you wish
you had better control over nervousness?
Concentration? Muscular
tension? Are you a professional dancer
still trying to master preperformance anxiety?
In her report, “Performance Preparation and Enhancement
– What Professional Dancers Do,” Virginia Gallagher, an Australian Ballet
School graduate, performer, and diplomate in counseling and psychotherapy,
found that performance skills are learned over a long period of time, but not in the classroom or from a teacher. Here are
some findings
from her survey of ballet, modern, and actor-dancers that may help you assess your performance preparations.
Everyone knows that good schooling and a technique suitable to one's
ambitions are necessary for a career in dance. According to Gallagher's survey:
It is not necessarily the
physically- gifted
who attain success and survive a professional career, but rather the mentally
tough, who with the required
physical attributes become the survivors and make a successful career.
Mental toughness is described as the development of:
• high levels of relaxation and
concentration skills, especially when performing under pressure
• breathing techniques to control performance anxiety
• highly evolved mental rehearsal skills
• keen awareness
of arousal levels when performing
• good control over negative thoughts when
performing
• effective personal organizational skills for
performance.
RELAXATION AND CONCENTRATION
Relaxation techniques include any
method that releases physical and mental
tension, such as consciously
releasing various parts of the body from muscular tightness through concentration while lying prone; deep breathing to various counts; or practicing the Feldenkrais technique-
a relaxation methodology. According
to the survey, dancers with a high level of confidence, as well as those with a low level, use
relaxation techniques. Confidence is described as
being sure of one's abilities, qualities, and ideas. Tests of confidence
involve performing situations, the opinion of others, opening nights, auditions. Performing new skills, having friends
in the audience,
adverse criticism, and taking class
with other dancers watching. Sleep,
a component of relaxation, can be a double-edged sword. While rest from strenuous classes
and rehearsals can build up energy, because the
dancer is less
fatigued, more time is available to fret and
worry about a forthcoming performance. A
cycle of sleeplessness frequently begins
this way. A sleep technique that may be practiced
during the training years involves "going to black"- a theatrical term for the blackout of
colors and objects on stage or on film. With
closed eyes, the dancer must see "black" and deliberately eliminate all colors, thoughts,
objects, or worries from the black screen until asleep. Let us say that you get the opportunity to rest during a
rehearsal period; advantage can be taken of even a few minutes by closing one's eyes and
picturing the hands
of a clock at the point at which you must awake. With a little practice, this becomes an
invaluable technique while traveling, in the dressing room, or between shows. Some dancers answering the survey find
the opposite is true. They picture breathing in blue air, breathing
out red air; feel sunlight entering the
toes and slowly relaxing and warming the whole body; and imagine they are
floating in calm water. Those who say
that they sometimes sleep well mostly use imaging and
breathing to relax and sleep, but
they don
' t
know where they learned these procedures; those who always sleep well do not use a technique
but say they relax and sleep by instinct; and those who never, or don 't sleep well use relaxation techniques with a small percentage using drugs and alcohol. Fifty percent of
the never group have no procedure for
relaxing and sleeping; 50 percent describe reading,
watching
TV,
drinking wine or hot milk, using sleeping
pills and imagery as ineffective.
BREATHING
Formerly taught in the classroom, the technique of breathing while executing
movements has almost disappeared. An exhale during a
plie or contraction, before a preparation followed by an
inhale during multiple tours and during
a balance;
the danger of holding one 's breath that can lead to dizziness and fainting especially during
cambré movements - and many, many more breathing components are seldom taught. During a performance, fear,
nervousness, or can restrict natural breathing, thus cutting off oxygen to the
lungs and muscles
resulting in fatigue, and loss of concentration, and coordination. Left unchecked,
small changes in breathing can
lead to excessive muscle tension that interferes with coordination and
timing. Correct
breathing is one of the most valuable techniques for focusing, calming, and energizing the
performer in a physical and mental sense.
_
MENTAL SKILLS
Visualization improves performance.
Mental rehearsal is the process of
watching yourself on the screen of your
mind's eye and performing perfectly.
According to Gallagher: "The muscle groups involved in visualization actually move
on a subliminal level because small
messages are sent to those muscles
through the nervous system. Mental rehearsals can help short cut the learning process
and complement the actual physical practice of
skills by tapping the nervous system's memory.
Bad habits can be
corrected and fear of an accident can be visualized
away.
Here are some links to more current articles posted in Dance Magazine online addressing performance anxiety:
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