Avariel
New member
Hmmm. So of this doesn't apply to you, please feel free to ignore me and pat me on my head and send me on my way; )
But the first thing that comes to mind is that it seems like it would be hard to refine and practice properly without a mirror to watch yourself dance and make those tiny corrections you make when you can see yourself perform different moves. I think most dancers have weird quirks that display when they dance or perform, and they happen because we're not so drilled in what we're doing that we can do it without thinking about it. Thinking and dancing is like drinking and driving; if you're having to concentrate on what your next move is, you sometimes do things while you internalize that you don't mean to do, and it takes away from your presence on stage. I tend to curl my fingers up and drop my arms a little; a friend of mine flips her hand up and down (which is funny, but very disconcerting to her, oops!) And a lot of people look down towards the floor. It's sort of...something you do while "You" go inside your brain to look for the next bit of choreography. Or if you're improv dancing, to think about what you're going to do next.
I can't assume how much you practice, and I imagine you practice quite a lot. But the best performances that I've personally had, have been the ones where I've practiced and drilled so much that the moves are second nature, and I can actually expend my energy projecting and emoting to the audience, meeting their eyes, looking from face to face, etc, instead of having to think about what comes next in the dance. The ones where I haven't practiced or haven't had as much preparation, my stage presence definitely suffers a little (as does my hand posture). So it may just be a matter of getting a few wall mirrors (I just have cheap tall ones from Fred Meyer in my basement lined up on the wall) and practicing in front of them in your own house, if only to ease your own mind that you're lookin gooooooood and can focus on emoting instead of trying to refine moves mid performance, because essentially, that's what we all try to do if it's not drilled. "My hips should go up like THIS, make sure my arms curve at the right angle, make sure I spin twice HERE"...etc. How can we possibly add "Make eye contact!" to that list?
