What's on your mind when performing?

[goddessyasaman]

When I perform I am in another world, I see people when I feel the need to and I love connecting with my audience. What I am thinking? I think about the story I am telling, I am a Improv dancer when i perform solo, I'm feeling the music and telling the story I want the audience to understand. And then sometimes I don't think but just feel and express who I am as a dancer.

 

[Samsara]

Maybe because I'm a beginner, when I'm performing I think: "OMG What am I doing? There are SO many people! Lol, my bf is laughing, I'm ridiculous? Fuck It, I'm having too much fun". So I'm smiling and laughing all the time o.o

 

[Anthea Kawakib]

...and affirmations

I posted on this topic about a month ago; since then remembered my most recent Zaghareet article* was sort of pertinent... in the article, I gave an example of a helpful pre-performance affirmation for beginning performers.
As a "cabaret-style" performer for many years, I found that projecting outward brought my performance to a higher level than staying wrapped up in my head. I deliberately send out good vibes while performing. Of course there's nuts-and-bolts stuff going on in the back of my head, like using the stage well, creating good poses for moves, connecting with all parts of the audience, that type of stuff. But it's too easy to be distracted if you don't train yourself to FOCUS somehow onstage. So the Affirmations help ground me.
(bolding my text again to make it easier to read)

*it will be in the Articles section of my site in a couple of months, after the next issue of Zag comes out.