How you feel just before entering the stage?

Maria_Aya

Maria_Aya

New member
Hi all !!!
I thought it would be interesting if we share:
The 10 or 5 min before going on stage, we are ready backstage and we are waiting our turn to go and amaze the audience !!!
So how do you feel? what you do? you got some tricks?

Me:
I try not to speak so much, and I hate it when at this time people come and ask me things, I need something like 5 min meditation.
I'm back of the stage, in my costume, have already checked pins etc lol, hair and make up ok (dont want a mirror that time lol) and i'm listening in my head my music, I try to get into the feeling of the music.
The sec that I listen my music i feel a beating in my heart, but it gets of the first min on stage.
While on stage, i try to enjoy it, and also give back this feeling to the audience. Usually I dance at theatre's or stage, so there is no very close contact with the audience, but even this way, i try to connect with some "eyes" I catch and have the general view of the audience.

How about you?

Maria Aya :)
 
E

Eve

New member
Like I'm going to be sick and I don't like to be round people or chat - I want to be alone!:cool: as soon as I'm on it's fine.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
If I am doing strictly improv, I feel, "Whee! Gonna have fun even if my veil trips me up." If it is a group choreography, my thoughts are more along the lines of, "Please, God, don't let me be the one to screw this up- I'm the teacher!"
 
karena

karena

New member
I'm only a baby performer, but I use the same technique as when I give a lecture. I imagine what I want to be like, and then stand, think, feel etc like that person. So, I tend to think what does a confident person stand like, think, feel etc and then do that. So if I start getting fidgety and nervous, or slouching I think "that's not what a confident person does" and adjust it. For dancing (and actually maybe lectures too these days ;)) I also think I am a dancer, and how does a dancer stand etc, but mainly it is the confidence thing. I find you will do and project what you visualise, so visualise what you want to be.
(Although having said that, I still project some nerves. I'm just a baby performer:))
 
gwinity

gwinity

New member
It depends on the event, but generally I think I'm OK for a studentdancer. Smaller performances are awesome: we all know we'll have a lot of fun, so we'll just chat and ogle each other's costumes beforehand - very laid back. For bigger shows, I get stage fright. Right up until the music starts, my hands are shaking, and I joke around asking if it's too late to pull out. Solos? I've only done one so far, and I think it went from stage fright to stage terror, I felt sick and was shaking, and made a complete fool out of myself. Next time will be better (yes, there will be a next time!)
 
adiemus

adiemus

New member
I've only performed twice doing bellydance, but I've done a lot of performing in other capacities (dance, music and public speaking). The feelings are exactly the same - a strange calm just before I go on - but in the hours beforehand, I feel fluttery and excited and I really don't like to be distracted by 'small talk'!!
And afterwards? I always try to avoid a postmortem immediately afterwards because I always focus on what I didn't do the way I wanted to!! and there's a sort of 'let down' period too, where I feel a bit deflated - and need a nice wee wine or something to help relax and wind down...
 
maylynn

maylynn

New member
What a good question!

Generally I don't feel nervous, or feel like I am anxious, but I've noticed that no matter how comfortable or calm I am feeling, my hands still shake and my heart rate definitely goes up! But it stops as soon as I walk out onstage and get into the music. Maybe my mind has gotten used to the stage fright but my body still feels it??

I do like a minute or two of calm just before I go on, e.g. not racing around finding my veil etc, so I can just stand there backstage ready to go on and not be flustered - time to get cool and collected. I'll usually also do a shimmy or two to loosen up my knees/legs/abdominals to make sure that when I get my shimmy going onstage it's nice and relaxed and warmed up, and not small and tense.

However, the first time I performed I definitely got butterflies and serious shakiness! I agree with Shanazel that solos & improv are much easier to perform than group choreogs!
 
Lydia

Lydia

New member
i feel like i am on top of the world!! gonna win a million dollars...cant wait to see the smiles!!!!!!!!!!cant explain that realy ,its to much to put that in words...stagefright? no way!!!!!!!!!! just ,,flying,, that is like that every show from when i starded 25 year ago till today !!!!!!!!
 
Gia al Qamar

Gia al Qamar

New member
I feel very silent...and centered...quiet and meditative.
I focus on my breathing, on my inner power and strength.
I take a moment before stepping on stage to touch my bindi over my third eye and remember why is THAT I dance.
I feel my heart pick up speed, matching the tempo of my music...a smile spreads across my lips, to my eyes, my face, my whole body...my posture grows taller and I am filled with enthusiasm and excitement to see my audience!
Gia
 
Mya

Mya

New member
I'm still a wee little performer - I'm ok at about 10 minutes before, i'm usually trying to keep myself warm because when i get nervous my body gets cold and then i can't move very well, i go through my music in my mind - at about five minutes before i get very nervous regardless of how well rehearsed my piece may be or how natural improv usually feels to me.

That usually lasts about 2-3 minutes into the performance and then i get into my Fifi-mode which is when i start to feel my audience and i interact and get comfortable. I'm good after that unless it's only a 3 minute appearance (alas!). I've grown up a bit since i started though - i can at least smile through my nerves until i'm comfortable.
 
Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
I'm "ok" until about 2 minutes before curtain call. Then I get this delicious feeling of anticipation, my heartrate increases a bit. I concentrate on breathing DEEP and SLOW, getting centered, checking my zills/veil/costume/props for the umpteenth time - and then the music starts and I'm on!

Or another way to look at it, this poem at the top of my videos page:

Zorba in Motion!
 
Yshka

Yshka

New member
Before I go on? I NEED TO PEE, REALLY REALLY BADLY!!!

I am calm up to maybe 10 minutes before performance. I stand around quietly but with hands shaking a bit, I feel butterflies when I go on. The nervousness ends during the performance (the shaking usually moves to my lip for a short while in the beginning, hehe).
When I'm performing with the troupe I'm way more nervy than when Im soloing, but depends on where I'm dancing and for whom. When performing for dance sisters or at school hafla's I'm really nervous. With the troupe I do get an extra oomph from dancing with the girls and it usually shows:cool:.

It's weird though. I LOVE performing and making my audience happy, letting them feel the music and emotion through my dancing, and I will feel this throughout the performance even though my nerves are present.
 
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Kashmir

Kashmir

New member
If it is "real" performance, I like to be quiet. I hate people chattering at me. I usually go through some drills - partly as warmup, partly as meditation. I breathe. I let the energy flow from the earth in through my feet, through my body and out the top of my head. I enter "the zone".

If I don't have time to enter this state I usually feel the "performance" was fake - doesn't mean people don't like it - but I'm not happy with it.
 
Mosaic

Mosaic

Super Moderator
I am still a BBD (baby bellydancer) even at 4 years of learning (probably will be at 10 years:lol:) So far I have only danced with a class group. I am not confident enough to dance alone. I wish i did have the confidence, and hope that one day that will happen. So how do i feel? I am nervous, very nervous, but also excited, I dread the opening bars, but want them to happen as well. I am always sure I will forget a choreo, but somehow once you are out there it all comes together and you feel great! I love to dance and I just don't see the crowd, I just dance!

I feel more comfortable dancing before strangers than in front of bellydancers, I am even more nervous if the audience is full of BD'ers

For me the worst time is about 24 hours before a performance, I am so nervous, it is awful.
~Mosaic
 
lizaj

lizaj

New member
Yshka said:
Before I go on? I NEED TO PEE, REALLY REALLY BADLY!!!
Click to expand...


Name me one performer who doesn't struggle into her bodystocking and immediately require the little girls' room.:D
 
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Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

Moderator
Gia al Qamar said:
I feel very silent...and centered...quiet and meditative.
I focus on my breathing, on my inner power and strength.
I take a moment before stepping on stage to touch my bindi over my third eye and remember why is THAT I dance.
I feel my heart pick up speed, matching the tempo of my music...a smile spreads across my lips, to my eyes, my face, my whole body...my posture grows taller and I am filled with enthusiasm and excitement to see my audience!Gia
Click to expand...

Me too! While I'm focusing on my breath, I forget who I am! And when the music dies down,an dI leave the stage/perfroming area...amnesia takes over. I can't remember with clarity, just the emotional afterglow!
Yasmine
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
Name me one performer who doesn't struggle into her bodystocking and immediately require the little girls' room
Click to expand...

My all time favorite bodystocking had hooks (well padded) in the pertinent area to allow graceful potty access. I've never found another one like it and I cried when it finally gave up the ghost.
 
jenc

jenc

New member
I have a black one with poppers, but need a flesh one. Dno't they know that us geriatric dancers (speaking for self) can wee for england. Now there's a though for our specialist sport in 2012
 
lizaj

lizaj

New member
jenc said:
I have a black one with poppers, but need a flesh one. Dno't they know that us geriatric dancers (speaking for self) can wee for england. Now there's a though for our specialist sport in 2012
Click to expand...

well if they can have synchro- drowning and beach babes chucking a ball about , why not?;)
 
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