The Importance Of Confidence In Dance
Confidence is vital to a dancer, but it doesn’t have to be genuine! Even if you’re quaking in your dancing shoes, LOOK confident and your audience will be impressed.
After all, the audience wasn’t at the rehearsals. They don’t know what the steps of a routine were supposed to be, so they’re not going to spot a mistake unless you makes it obvious by frowning or pulling a funny face – or worse, by stopping!
If you keep your head up, torso erect, smiling brightly no matter what’s happening lower down, the audience will probably never notice you goofed.
Nerves before a performance are normal, and you can’t avoid them.. Learn to look confident every time you dance, even in rehearsal, and it will become a habit. A word of warning – if you dance with poise and confidence in class, some students will call you a show-off. Those students want you to stick your tongue out when you’re concentrating and stop when you make a mistake.
It can be tough to weather that storm, but remember – the way you dance in class is the way you’ll dance on stage. Ask yourself what you want, to fit in or to become a good dancer. Serious dancers will always try to dance in class as they would on stage (unless they’re conserving their energy for a later performance).
My teacher expected us to take every step in class, as if we were on stage. That has stood me in good stead throughout my dance career – and has even got me into trouble! More than once, when I started performing flamenco, audience members told me I was a better dancer than my teacher. I knew that wasn’t true – my teacher was a far better dancer. But the difference was, I had been taught to dance confidently no matter what, whereas she was rather shy and tended to dance with her eyes downcast. So when we danced together (as we sometimes did), it was me who grabbed the audience’s attention. They never noticed my feet were not as precise or my hand movements less graceful – all they could see were my smile, my posture, and my ‘attack’ and enthusiasm.
Of course, rehearsal is also important, so you’re not constantly thinking about your next step. But that’s not the biggest contribution to your ‘confidence score’!
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