A question to all the dancers out there?

Just take a deep breath and do it.

I am super self conscious and tend to really stress when doing anything performance related. I, therefore, tend to goof up a lot because I am so tense. Something that has slowly dawned on me is just how few people actually pay attention to what other people are doing. Most people are just thinking about themselves.

Mistakes and goof-ups are a part of the learning process. And plus, dancing is supposed to be fun, so make it fun.

And dont worry about it so much. I know, its easier said than done. But if youre constantly worrying about letting go its never gonna happen.

I know I’m not the greatest dancer, but I love the performance aspect of it, so I will say this:

Just love to dance. Find the emotion, the intent, in everything you dance. As difficult as it sounds, forget about your insecurities and go straight back to your roots.

Have you read Mao’s Last Dancer? There is a part that goes like this:

When Li was trying to master five consecutive pirouettes, his wise teacher asked him what he would do with a mango if he was lucky enough to be given this rare and beautiful fruit.

“Eat it,” Li answered. “No,” said the teacher, it would be better to “hold it, admire the shape, feel the weight, cut the skin and savour the fragrance, taste the skin and even the nut”. Then comes the ultimate sensation, the pulp.

(from an article in The Sydney Morning Herald)

Do you over think and compulsively worry about everything? Dancing is the easiest thing in the world to me. Even when it’s not completely free style, if you know the routine you should be able to just let the music take you.

I would get some experience with improvisation. With improvised dancing, nothing is wrong. You can focus on your feelings or on an idea or on other people and just dance in relationship to those things.

The thing is that it has to come from inside you. It has to be your intensity and your commitment to whatever it is you want to say. People here talk about thinking too much, and to an extend they are right, but dance is not about thinking at all, and if you are thinking, then you didn’t prepare properly.

You can find some kind of warm-up ritual. You can put some of your favorite music on your iPod, and lie down. Take yourself through every part of your body, imagining that you are breathing through that part of your body. When you’ve done that (it should take around five minutes), the slowly start moving and stretching.

The idea here is not to stretch various muscles in any particular order, but to make the stretching into a dance. Feel you body. Feel which muscles want to be moved in which order. Where are you tight? Where are you cold? Where does it feel stiff or hurt?

Do this with your eyes closed so you can not be distracted by anything you see or by other dancers. Look with your closed eyes and see what you need to see. Sometimes when I do this, I can see the lines on the floor. It all looks bathed in a warm red light, and there is something intense about that light. When I open my eyes, it’s a kind of let down, so I try to keep my eyes closed as long as possible, even when I am moving in space. This also helps you develop your kinetic sense of space, which is very useful in fitting in with other dancers, particularly in improvisatory situations (which, surprise, surprise, is what I do).

If you warm up like this, your mind will drop out, and you’ll find yourself in your body—or you would, if you could think about it. But you don’t want to think. You just want to be. If you have got your mind out of the way and you are utterly in your body, then you can dance authentically. There is no thinking to stop you. You throw yourself completely into whatever it is that you are doing. The really amazing thing is that when you do this, you can actually do things that you can’t do. I hope you have this experience—regularly.

Enjoy.

“Those who dance are considered insane by those who can’t hear the music ”-George
Carlin

I wouldn’t worry about it :)

I teach tango, which is a social dance. Most dancers there have similar problems, but in many ways there’s an easier way out, because the biggest inhibition that keeps most people from dancing in general is looking stupid. Most asshole tango dancers (or social dancers in general) will just blame the other person if they look bad. I do everything in my power to discourage that behavior.

The whole point of the dancing that I do is that it’s social, and that’s how I get around stage fright. I’m there to enjoy dancing and music and an intimate connection with another human being. When I’m dancing, my focus is on my partner, and I don’t care who’s watching me or why. And because I have a responsibility to help my partner love the dance as much as I do, it’s not about me at all. It’s about the partner. I pour my energy into him or her, and what comes out is a beautiful, wonderful dance.

That probably doesn’t help performance oriented studio dances like the trifecta of ballet, tap, and jazz. But you can use similar techniques. The whole point is that the dance isn’t about you. It’s about the dance.

(I mean, it is about you in a way, but it’s really not. The ego gets in the way, like you’re experiencing now.)

You could try wearing a mask. It helps a lot of people out (and, honestly, is part of what I’m getting at).

Also, tango is entirely improvisational. That makes it have a steep learning curve for beginners, but also helps with that. As @wundayatta says, the improvisation can be freeing, because there aren’t patterns and standards saying what you have to do or should do. Just the dance.

Edit: Also also, another good way to get around the fear of looking stupid is to embrace it. You’re guaranteed to look like a complete idiot at some point. You’re better off playing it off like you meant to do it—indeed, have fun looking foolish. Science bears this out! One cross-cultural experience intrinsic to all human beings is that we actually enjoy looking foolish in front of a crowd after we’ve done it. We actually get chemically rewarded in our brain for it.

People will like you more, too.

I have a long drive to work so I am a professional car dancer and singer. I have figured out that everyone else is usually preoccupied with their own things like talking on the phone , changing the radio station, or putting on make up. Occasionally I have a few people who notice, but I usually get a smile or they start dancing as well. In the end it doesn’t matter what people think as long as your having fun.

“Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth.”- Mark Twain

When I was in university, I took classes that constantly challenged me. At one point I took classes with a Polish choreographer, and his movement was so difficult that actually one third of the class dropped out after the first lesson.

However, there was something in his movement that really intrigued me, something that made me hungry to learn. So even though I had picked up dancing when I was in university, and there was no way I could pick up things as fast as dancers who had been dancing since the age of six did; or be as elegant as they were (in that period in my life); I really wanted to embody this form. And I knew that the only way I was going to learn was to make mistakes.

The scariest part in contemporary dance is the art when you are going across the floor near the end of the class. That’s the part when i felt really exposed, and there were times when i didn’t even remember the whole phrase we were taught. But again, what went through my head was: I really want to learn this. No matter how stupid I look now, I want to learn this. And the only way I’m going to learn this is to put aside my fear of looking stupid and do it.

I got better of course, very fast—there’s nothing like being thrown in the deep end. And this repeated itself again, when I followed the choreographer to Poland and studied with his company. There I was among professional dancers who had trained with him for years in company class; again, doing things that were way too hard for me and looking very foolish (but learning a lot, truly a lot).

In short, I would say (and this is a variation of what the others are saying), if you connect back to why you dance and why you are in the studio in the first place you will be able to master any fears you might have. You’ll dance because it’s a joy to move, and it’s a joy to roll on your back and leap in the air. And when you connect with the fact that moving is about exploration and experiencing and not about looking good or bad or being smart or stupid but just being present and honest to the moment, then it’s easy. It’s very very easy to dance.

I no longer dance to perform (when I did, I rarely got nervous, we practiced so much we knew we had it all right) – I dance with a partner (s) at a Milonga (a night of Argentine Tango) and I let it all go these days – just close my eyes and breathe throughout…people often notice that we have a certain energy because we enjoy ourselves and dance for ourselves.

I’ve been dancing for a long time, but performing my works has never come easily to me. I get jitters before going on stage, but as soon as I step out into the warm lights, I feel calm and confident. I feel ready to move mountains! But I always fall short of my own performances expectations. I suspect that this is largely because I don’t work hard enough at emoting during rehearsals. I have a problem with opening up to people artistically, so I never get the chance to practice. This year, I intend to change that – it’s time to access those parts of me that can communicate how I feel and what I’m thinking. Then I’ll be able to dance “in the moment” and also create some kind of understanding in my audience.

This may sound odd. I am strangely superstitious and counterintuitive, right before I perform, not while on deck to go or the beginning of the day, but right before the music starts, I think of all the things that I could possibly do wrong. Even how I could severely hurt myself. For me if I thought about it, I know what could go wrong, I’m either okay with it or aware of an alternate way of how things may progress in my show. After seeing this flash through my mind I’m calm. I also remember the best advice I have ever gotten about performing: “Just Breath” Breathing helps me connect to the music, and dig deep into what it means to me. It’s almost as if I am dancing right on top of the music. And if for some reason I mess up or falter, breathing helps me stay focused.
I’m also completely aware throughout the performance. Somehow I am able to keep a mental dialog with myself. For instance I once lost all the feeling in both of my feet during a show. I remember saying to myself, “wow your feet are asleep, that probably isn’t a good thing…”
I guess what makes sense to me, is doing my absolute best, breathing and feeling the music, all while being aware of my body. It took me about 4 years to get to that mentality.