It’s about time to go perform on stage, but your legs are shaking, your mind is blank, and your body feels nausea… How to deal with this pre-show nervousness?

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We all are familiar with nervousness before going on stage. But sometimes it’s more than just a nervousness. Sometimes it’s literally a fear that paralyzes us, and although this fear is in our mind and imagination, it manifests in very physical ways. For example:⁣⁣

a frozen smile on your face that feels more like a tic rather than a smile,⁣⁣
clumsy arms without any energy in your muscles,⁣⁣
glut together or super spread and tensed finders,⁣⁣
numb shaking legs that don’t provide any support,⁣⁣
blank mind that makes us forget choreography, etc.

Our imagination will often draw the worst possible scenario that may scary us so much that we would even refuse to step on stage. As performers our most common nightmares are:⁣⁣ forgetting the choreography,⁣⁣ losing costume on stage,⁣⁣ falling down in front of the audience,⁣⁣ failing at the competition results,⁣⁣ (you can continue this list in the comments below)…⁣⁣ All these scenarios are possible, but there is a difference between being concerned about, or being freaked out by them. Also, what we are afraid of are not these events themselves, but their potential results: judgement and rejection from other people.

Remember that those are the tricks of our reptile brain whose function is to protect us by all possible means. Back in the past it was crucial to stay with your community for the survival sake, so even a possibility of being rejected might have resulted in death. ⁣⁣Now times changed, but our brain still functions with that ‘cave-old’ mechanism, and it’s your task to understand when it serves you, and when it may result in self-sabotaging thoughts and fears.

Our imagination can have very empowering effect, but it also creates all these blocks. That’s why in our related to this topic intensive The Power of Imagination we are addressing our imagination with its positive AND negative impact on three different levels: our technique,⁣⁣ our projected emotions,⁣⁣ and our confidence on stage.⁣⁣

Pre-show nervousness is familiar to everyone to a certain extent. But how to make sure it doesn’t prevent us from doing things we want? How to transform this nervousness into an excitement, nausea into belly butterflies? It can come by practice and experience… true. But also there are some things that you can do to speed up and easy this journey:

list your 3 to 5 major performance fears that gives your pre-show anxiety. Analyze where they come from, and how realistic they are. No self-judgement here, just observe how your mind responses to these questions. Think about worst case scenarios of these fears coming true, and their potential influences on your life. Next, list 1 to 3 steps on how you can respond immediately if bad event actually happens, and 1 to 3 strategies on how you can minimize its long-term effect on your life. Lastly, think about pre-caution actions that you can take to prevent such event from happening at all.
once you feel those fears start paralyzing your mind and body, move immediately! Any kind of basic dynamic warm-up will work for it. Moving your body will not only prepare your muscles for the upcoming performance, but also will bring you back from your mind to your body.
start doing meditations that helps you be in present movement, and reconnect you to your body.

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Author: Iana Komarnytska
Photographer: Pedro Bonatto

Listen to the Podcast: Dealing With Performance Fears