Thread: Keeping the head up

Hey!

I was wondering if anyone could give me advice about practicing as if for an audience. I practice regularly at home in my tiny dining room where I have a mirror set up and I can clear the furniture enough to make space to travel a little/spin on the spot. As a dancer, I've very little experience of facing an audience and I've only just started to learn not to look at the floor and grimace whilst in class. However, I'm finding that as soon as I'm put on the spot I feel even more cripplingly self-conscious than usual and its back to old habits.

Has anyone got any tips for rehearsing at least an appearance of confidence? I'm an awful actress so I find playing 'lets pretend' doesn't work for me: I have to really believe something.

Also what about learning to maintain you head/chin at a decent height? Short of wearing a surgical neck brace to practice, I'm really struggling to eradicate the dreaded droop.

Help!

One thing I've tried with my private students is setting up specific points for them to focus on while they're dancing in my studio, and pretending these points are people in the audience. These are silly things like Olive Oyl dressed in a harem outfit, and pictures that are scattered around. Once you learn to focus while practicing, it shouldn't be a problem keeping your chin up.

When dancing for a real audience, you can imagine it filled with friendly people you would want to see there. Imagine your mom or best friend sitting in the front row beaming at you, and other friends -- real or not; one of mine is Johnny Depp ..l;, -- scattered here and there.

There are lots of other ways to appear confident -- I teach a whole workshop on this topic. But my hubby just made some coffee and wants some company, so I'll let others chime in.

Latifa

Just remind yourself that looking down makes you look ugly ..l;,
Too much shadow in the face, double chin, bad posture...

You can look right over people's heads if it's too difficult for you to look them straight in the face.

MEISSOUN

Hi Khadiya,

Excellent question! ..g.:
A lot of people have trouble with this, but its a skill that can be practised like any other.
You can do it with or without a real audience.

A few things that can really help for rehearsing this:

• Imagine a cheering and happy audience around you while you dance at home, and imagine that they react positively every time you look up and smile at them. It helps to make your mental image of the pretend-audience as clear as possible (i.e. what kind of setting is it, how many people are there, are they standing/sitting, are they only in front of you or in 2 corners or all around you etc..)
• Film yourself while dancing away from the mirror, and imagine that the camera is someone you'd really like to see in the audience.
  (Brad Pitt works for me )
• If you feel up to it: Ask your teacher if you can dance for your fellow students in class. This is excellent practise because the pressure and audience is 'real' but it's still a safe environment. Do tell your teacher and the fellow students on beforehand that this is something you find scary to do, you'll probably find that you're not the only one ..c::
• Try to use your head for accents while you practise, this will give you something to do with it, which will help break the habit of looking down while dancing
• Find a few poses that you know look good on you and make sure they have a specific head position (i.e. with chin up ) and practise transitions to and from that pose. When you get nervous while dancing go into your pose, knowing it looks good, and then go on dancing.

Khadiya, my daughter and I had to dance once at a theater where the audience rises up all around the stage, so we had to practice looking even more *up* than usual.

We drew smiley faces on napkins and taped them to the walls in our practice space and practiced looking at them while we danced. It worked! It helped to have each other there to nag & remind. "look up...are you looking up?"

Before you dance for an audience, will you get opportunities to dance for your classmates? If not, can you practice dancing for some friends/family members? Maybe not in full costume, if that makes you feel self-conscious, but just to practice making eye contact.

Do you have kids? I've found the best way to break a bad habit while dancing is to bribe a kid. Have them watch you practice and offer them a quarter for every time they catch you slipping up.

Here's another thought, if you need a new thought process to replace the self-conscious one. While you're on stage, you're the 'hostess,' responsible for making sure each person is comfortable with your performance and having a good time. That's not acting -- it's a real responsibility. You can't be taking care of your audience if you're not looking at them. If you look uncomfortable, they're going to feel uncomfortable. So you try to make eye contact with each person, and give them a genuine welcoming smile. If you were having an argument with someone (in the house or on the phone) and several of your neighbors came to the door, you'd hide your feelings for a moment and make eye contact with them and greet them, right? Same thing. Not acting, just common courtesy.

I think you're on the right track just being aware of it during practice time, though, and giving yourself time to work through it.

PS: in addition to consciously lifting your chin, try to really practise your 'dance posture' (chest open and lifted, shoulders down and back, long neck) everytime you dance in class and at home.. If you are shy it will take a while untill this feels comfortable (both emotionally and physical), but it will get easier with time. Posture is just as important as head position, and lifting your chin will feel more natural to you if the rest of your posture is already more 'open'.

I second all the suggestions already made here.

The one that I've found really helped for me when I was overcoming this battle was the 'imagine a cheery happy audience around you'. To this day when I'm practising for a performance I imagine this audience. I've videoed myself during practice a couple of times so I can get a more 'objective' look at what I'm doing, and you can see me, smiling at that distant 'friend' in the audience, raising an eyebrow at that little kid in the front row, etc. Practising that open and friendly demeanour (sp?) with the audience is just as important as practising your hip-drops, and it really does get easier with practice - I'm not a good actress either, but the practising helps me prepare for when I'm out of my comfort zone and then the facial expressions come just as naturally (I hope!) as the other movements.

Originally Posted by Khalida

PS: in addition to consciously lifting your chin, try to really practise your 'dance posture' (chest open and lifted, shoulders down and back, long neck) everytime you dance in class and at home.. If you are shy it will take a while untill this feels comfortable (both emotionally and physical), but it will get easier with time. Posture is just as important as head position, and lifting your chin will feel more natural to you if the rest of your posture is already more 'open'.

This is a *very* good point I'd never thought about. If your head is down, you've probably lost a lot more than just eye contact with the audience. It's difficult to maintain a nice open dance posture and drop your head!

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Here's another thought, if you need a new thought process to replace the self-conscious one. While you're on stage, you're the 'hostess,' responsible for making sure each person is comfortable with your performance and having a good time. That's not acting -- it's a real responsibility. You can't be taking care of your audience if you're not looking at them. If you look uncomfortable, they're going to feel uncomfortable. So you try to make eye contact with each person, and give them a genuine welcoming smile. If you were having an argument with someone (in the house or on the phone) and several of your neighbors came to the door, you'd hide your feelings for a moment and make eye contact with them and greet them, right? Same thing. Not acting, just common courtesy.

This is an excellent point, Lauren. I talk about making one's audience comfortable, but I think the "hostess/host" idea is an excellent "real world" example of what keeping one's head up can do!

(I also like the smiley faces on the wall!) ..g.:

Deborah

Originally Posted by Lauren_

We drew smiley faces on napkins and taped them to the walls in our practice space and practiced looking at them while we danced. It worked! It helped to have each other there to nag & remind. "look up...are you looking up?"

At the dance studio where I used to teach, each year a few weeks before recital they would cover the mirrors up with paper. The owner would draw little faces and funny characters on them, which was great for the little kids in tutus but not very inspiring for my adult classes. I asked everyone to bring in a picture of a loved one, or even a celebrity that they thought was a hottie. We taped them up during our class and gently removed them after, and it wasn't hard to for them to smile dancing for Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, etc.

Hi

Thanks for sharing your tips here with me. I think that there are quite a few ideas that I can take away with me here. Last night, I tried to practice with one of my favorite soft toys peeping through the banisters at me and I think it helped! I didn't catch myself looking down so much. I'm also thinking of putting up some pictures of stuff that makes me automatically smile (like sunflowers) around my practice space. I'm not sure that pictures of hotties would work for me (I'm off men big time right now) but I take the point.

Two thoughts particularly stood out for me:

Just remind yourself that looking down makes you look ugly

Yes! this is the kind of straight-talking I need to give myself!

While you're on stage, you're the 'hostess,' responsible for making sure each person is comfortable with your performance and having a good time. That's not acting -- it's a real responsibility. You can't be taking care of your audience if you're not looking at them.

I never thought about it like this Lauren, so thanks for the insight. I am easily intimidated by others so I tend to think about how bad I'm feeling but not about the poor audience being forced to watch a miserable dancer! I think I need to have a more sharing focus and selfless focus in my dance and that will help.

Lifting the chest definitely does help. What has got me to look up in class is a combination of Aziza's practice companion (I keep hearing her saying 'bright eyes' in my ear every time I dance) and also my current teacher who is into (dare I say it) a bit of burley now and again. At the risk of starting another fevered debate on this subject, it does seem to have provided her with a different (and to me useful) insight into stage dynamics.

Originally Posted by khadiya

also my current teacher who is into (dare I say it) a bit of burley now and again. At the risk of starting another fevered debate on this subject, it does seem to have provided her with a different (and to me useful) insight into stage dynamics.

I know who your current teacher is, so I can confidently say that her stage presence has always been magnificent, even before she started investigating burley! She is actually a fantastic role model for stage presence and audience interaction (I've really looked up to and tried to emulate this element in her performance work for a long time!) so get as many tips from her as you can. If you get the opportunity to just watch her perform, and see how she 'gets on with' the audience you will learn a lot.

I know who your current teacher is, so I can confidently say that her stage presence has always been magnificent, even before she started investigating burley! She is actually a fantastic role model for stage presence and audience interaction (I've really looked up to and tried to emulate this element in her performance work for a long time!) so get as many tips from her as you can. If you get the opportunity to just watch her perform, and see how she 'gets on with' the audience you will learn a lot.

Thanks D!

Yes, the way she interacts when she's dancing is very inspirational and she does seem to have a very keen instinct for how individual dancers in her class will react/project in certain situations. She has helped me to realize that if I try quite hard to act 'the vamp' then I'll come out as outgoing but normal! She is also very helpful with the pose thing - you know, helping us to find poses where we know we look good so that we feel a bit boosted.

I guess that this is like everything else in my dancing. If I grit my teeth and persevere then I will, eventually, improve.

Don't forget breathing! (have I said this before?) Focus on your breathing, and everything will relax. You can't breathe properly if you are looking down. Breathe deeply from your belly and your nerves will calm down. Breathing calmly will help relax your audience, which in turn will help you relax. The whole confidence thing emulates from being calm on stage, and if you hold your breath or breathe in a shallow manner, you will come across as nervous and your body will respond as if it is under stress. If you control your breathing, you are more than half way to having good stage presence.

Originally Posted by khadiya

Also what about learning to maintain you head/chin at a decent height? Short of wearing a surgical neck brace to practice, I'm really struggling to eradicate the dreaded droop.

One thing that has worked for some of my students:

Keep your tongue pressed gently against the roof of your mouth. Sounds funny, but I have seen it work and change some very strong 'must-look-down' habits.

I read somewhere (maybe in one of Eric Franklin's books?) about the idea of imagining your head as a balloon. I like that imagery, and when I do it I can sort of feel my neck lengthening, and being more active in general. It might also be good for bringing energy (and chins!) up.

Try practicing without the mirror - and if you can video tape yourself all the better. I feel that mirror is OK but can become a safety blanket, if you can't see yourself you panic, so looking down you can see yourself with no mirror, hence the head problem. Lots of other good advice on this thread.

Keep your tongue pressed gently against the roof of your mouth. Sounds funny, but I have seen it work and change some very strong 'must-look-down' habits.

This is an excellent point Monica. Now I think about it, this is a technique that one of my yoga teachers uses to encourage people to get their heads in a good position.

Try practicing without the mirror

Will do. I'm using it as too much of a prop and while it can be helpful, the shape of the room means that it is positioned quite low down - cue more head drooping.

Thanks Bhuz!

Have you ever balanced a basket? It will definitely help you to keep your head up and not leaning forward! I use a soft one (weighted with a bag of pennies) that I can conform a bit to my head.

I wonder if brad pitt has any idea how many bellydancers he has inspired to good posture?

One other thing which sounds completely silly, but helped me is buying a hair pice. the weight of that thing on the back of my head DEMANDED that I keep my head up!

Which has been great training for sword, tray and basket!

On an more serious note, I was taught to always look at the stage lights. In small restaurants this has been less than useful, but in haflas, recitals and staged shows it's great!

{{HUGS}}}}

I definitely struggle with this, too - one thing I've noticed is that if I'm making eye contact with a "front row" audience, especially if they're on the floor, I look down and NEVER get my eyes back up!

I try to remember to look over the tops of the heads of the BACK row of people. At least sometimes - obviously, this is better for "stage" shows than for "restaurant" style gigs! I can't claim that it helps me keep my head UP, but I can say that it looks much better on video....

(Also, I'm hoping that getting contacts will help. It might be a cop out, but I think I focus near me + down so much because I can SEE anything else!!)