Hello everyone!

I want to give a little thought to competitions, primarily how you cope when things go wrong.  A few weeks ago, I watched students from my studio compete in a competition, and most of the transitions from piece to piece were smooth and seamless, but the tension built up when one of my friends was about to go on and they turned on the wrong music.  The announcer said “Attention judges:  the next number will be …” The next girl stepped onstage and took her pose, but her music was wrong as well.  They had switched it with my friend’s piece!  Then came the awkward part where the announcer asked the dancer to please leave the stage.  My friend had to wait through about five dances before they straightened out the music and went back to her.  By that time, there is no telling how much her adrenaline and nerves had built up.  She did fairly well, but you could tell that she was past her peak as far as stress levels go.

I once fell during the Medora variation from Le Corsaire, right at the beginning of the piece.  When landing from a jump my foot slipped behind me (slippery stage + pointe shoes = disaster) so I catapulted forward and fell right on my face.  The audience gasped, but for some reason my mind was so calm and set on giving them a show, I bounced back up and didn’t miss a beat in the music.  The crazy part is, I look back and remember that performance as one of my favorites.  After that fall, there was nothing worse that could happen, so I just danced my heart out and the audience cheered at the end.  It felt great!  I find nothing more invigorating than giving a good show.

In my years of competing, I have had several experiences with mixed music, costume malfunctions, and falling flat on my face onstage.  The question is:  how do you cope when something goes wrong?  For me, it all comes down to mental preparation.  A few years ago, my parents gave me a motivational cd series called the Psychology of Winning.  That it my top choice when I need to get in “the zone”.  It’s not necessarily about winning, but having a mindset that anything is possible.  After all, you become what you think about most of the time.  I always perform best when I take a few minutes to be in a quiet place by myself, close my eyes, listen to my ipod, and get in “the zone”.  How do you prepare for competitions and deal with mishaps?  Embarrassing stories welcome!

-Lizzy

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 11:31 am and is filed under DanceWorld Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.