Time for a dance update. Right before my vacation we had a regular concert. Two dances with the group. Saidi duet and a mejance solo. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten my hands on decent videos of these. I know, I dissapoint, again. Eventually, eventually..
This was my first solo and even though I knew the dance I was shaking just as much as back when we had the first ever onstage performance with the group. I kind of did not expect such body reaction. It is rather difficult to dance whilst shaking. Sure, shimmy works well, but other than that.. Good thing was that the solo was the first of the dances I had to perform, so I got that out of the way, eventually stopped shaking and could focus on the rest of the dances.
For me it works so that the more concerts I take part in, and the more known the dances are, the less stressed I get. Thus I believe that with more exposure to solo numbers the stress levels could very well drop too. Each of us manages our stress differently. My duet partner likes to re-act it by constantly rehearsing the dances. I am not that much of a fan of such tactic, but compromises sometimes must be made. I myself usually look collected and cool as a cucumber until I'm actually on stage. Then I start randomly shaking if the stress has been really too much to handle. I couldn't say it's any better of a tactic though.
On the last Friday of my vacation, I had a contest too. Two duet numbers. Both of which we grabbed the first places for. Yes, you guessed it, again, due to zero competition. I haven't seen them IRL yet, but apparently, we got trophies too. The awarding was taking too long and since it was the middle of a Friday and my lady-duet-partner-in-crime had to get back to work, we just took off. Just another thing checked off the to-do list. :D
What's next? Well, new costumes, new dance. Salsa is coming up next for the end of the summer concert, so, we'll see how that will work out, with dancing shoes on heels and all. But all in due time. That is, unless we're sent to yet another random contest in between. I hope not though. I need to breathe for a moment.
Hugs&Coffee,
~Josie~
Previously on "And So We Dance":
- And so we dance..
- And So We Dance - II - [video x2]
- And So We Dance - III
- And So We Dance - IV
- And So We Dance - V
- And So We Dance - VI
Reading this, I remembered my own way of getting rid of that stressed shaking before a performance, be it guitar playing or public speaking.
I would always find a way to shake that stress off just before I start my performance. In public speech contests, I would have my piece written down on a sheet of paper, which I would quickly crumble and throw away just as I'm about to start. When playing the guitar, I would simply strike that first chord and project my stress into it, so that once I've started, the stress has been thrown away at the same time.
No amount of preparation would ever help me relax. This stress-throwing at the start of the performance is what has helped me best so far. It's all about finding the way of throwing it away.
P.S. Even though you felt like a cucumber, at least you didn't have to wear that awful green costume this time ^^ Congrats on your first solo performance!
With repetition even extraordinary becomes mundane.
That's just how it is... the shakes will stop and you will flow free as a water :)
I think it’s really neat that you do it, even though you’re nervous. It’s good to step out of your comfort zone! 😊
We CurateYou got a plankton sized upvote from @worksinsane because your post appeared in the quality post search tool. It is a web art thingy thing that searches posts which fulfill predetermined rules. Upvoting isn't automated, @worksinsane reads posts before upvoting.
For more information read the latest post.