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Graham W
16th-November-2005, 12:22 PM
on saturday I tried dancing in front of people in a partnered group hip hop routine, and after being great in practice, choked.., thu there were external factors such as a coupla drinks, it aint no excuse; it took me back to my first couple of attempts at local DWAS comps, which I ended up doing well at. Is it going to take a few goes again, or does anyone have any tips; I think part of it was dancing a style in front of others that I aint used too, maybe I need to practice to Technotronic!!? ;-) A 'teacher' here I know says I choke under the spotlight - would be ace to prove the b*****r wrong

G

Donna
16th-November-2005, 01:48 PM
on saturday I tried dancing in front of people in a partnered group hip hop routine, and after being great in practice, choked.., thu there were external factors such as a coupla drinks, it aint no excuse; it took me back to my first couple of attempts at local DWAS comps, which I ended up doing well at. Is it going to take a few goes again, or does anyone have any tips; I think part of it was dancing a style in front of others that I aint used too, maybe I need to practice to Technotronic!!? ;-) A 'teacher' here I know says I choke under the spotlight - would be ace to prove the b*****r wrong

G

It just comes with experience. I remember when I first started competing and I was a nervous wreck. It's ok people saying pretend nobody is there and you are the only one on the floor....BUT IT AIN'T THAT EASY!! Just enjoy it and when you've done it more and more, you gain confidence and basically don't give a stuff about what anybody thinks...except for judges of course!

ElaineB
16th-November-2005, 02:03 PM
on saturday I tried dancing in front of people in a partnered group hip hop routine, and after being great in practice, choked.., thu there were external factors such as a coupla drinks, it aint no excuse; it took me back to my first couple of attempts at local DWAS comps, which I ended up doing well at. Is it going to take a few goes again, or does anyone have any tips; I think part of it was dancing a style in front of others that I aint used too, maybe I need to practice to Technotronic!!? ;-) A 'teacher' here I know says I choke under the spotlight - would be ace to prove the b*****r wrong

G

Hey Graham - you were behind/alongside me and from what I could see (when I wasn't making mistakes!:whistle: ) you were fine!!!!!! There were quite a few of us and I think we all made mistakes, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it - (well no-one asked for a refund anyway!)

See you soon


Elaine
:hug:

Saxylady
16th-November-2005, 03:51 PM
on saturday I tried dancing in front of people in a partnered group hip hop routine, and after being great in practice, choked.., thu there were external factors such as a coupla drinks, it aint no excuse; it took me back to my first couple of attempts at local DWAS comps, which I ended up doing well at. Is it going to take a few goes again, or does anyone have any tips; I think part of it was dancing a style in front of others that I aint used too, maybe I need to practice to Technotronic!!? ;-) A 'teacher' here I know says I choke under the spotlight - would be ace to prove the b*****r wrong

G

As you know, I have trouble with nerves. Found some interesting info here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/about/ask...anscript.shtml - Basically talking about how we experience and handle adrenalin, and how we can change our psychologial response to it.

Do you think you might have been expecting too much of yourself??? We mere mortals looking on certainly didn't expect perfection after a couple of hours rehearsal and at the end of a very long day.

At my last sax quartet performance we all had a drop of wine in the interval. It calmed our nerves, but there were a fair few mistakes - good thing was we didn't care.

philsmove
16th-November-2005, 04:34 PM
Well it did not show

Although I have to admit my eyes were on your beautiful partner, rather than you
:wink:
Congratulation, I certainly would not have the courage to have a go

Almost an Angel
16th-November-2005, 08:02 PM
on saturday I tried dancing in front of people in a partnered group hip hop routine, and after being great in practice, choked.., thu there were external factors such as a coupla drinks, it aint no excuse; it took me back to my first couple of attempts at local DWAS comps, which I ended up doing well at. Is it going to take a few goes again, or does anyone have any tips; I think part of it was dancing a style in front of others that I aint used too, maybe I need to practice to Technotronic!!? ;-) A 'teacher' here I know says I choke under the spotlight - would be ace to prove the b*****r wrong

G

Looked fine from where I was sitting and enjoying it.

Considering you all only had 2 hours to learn the routine - which was fabulous and very complex - you all did brilliantly. :worthy: :worthy: :worthy:

Everyone looked great and really got into the routine. No-one looked like they shouldn't have been there so I'll have to disagree with you.

Angel xx

clevedonboy
17th-November-2005, 12:29 AM
Am I missing something? Graham looked better than he felt is a given but his point is about trying to not feeling so nervous that it impedes his performance - if he looked good while feeling bad, how good could he have looked?

I've a lot of sympathy for what he's saying so wouldn't it be better to answer the question rather than say "there there you were great anyway"?

Unfortunately I don't have any easy answers. More time with Graeme Puckett maybe!

MartinHarper
17th-November-2005, 10:38 AM
I figure that if I do something like this, it isn't about demonstrating how well I can dance. Rather, it's about demonstrating how well I've been taught. As the exhibit, rather than the exhibitor, I don't need to feel worried and nervous.

David Franklin
17th-November-2005, 12:13 PM
Am I missing something? Graham looked better than he felt is a given but his point is about trying to not feeling so nervous that it impedes his performance - if he looked good while feeling bad, how good could he have looked?

I've a lot of sympathy for what he's saying so wouldn't it be better to answer the question rather than say "there there you were great anyway"?You have a point, but there are a couple of (related) counter-arguments:

It's hard to judge your own performance: everyone is their worst critic, and in general, the better they are, the more critical they will be. If people watching thought it was good, that is actually useful feedback.

And in terms of not getting stressed, it's important to realise that what seems like a big mistake to you may not even be noticed by the people watching. It does help your confidence when you know this.


Unfortunately I don't have any easy answers. More time with Graeme Puckett maybe!I think the biggest thing is practice, practice and more practice. In particular, practice performing in front of an audience. Over repetition, you will both get less stressed, and also more used to what being stressed does to your dancing, and how to compensate for it. (In particular, I find I need to remember not to rush things...)

Graham W
17th-November-2005, 12:58 PM
[QUOTE=philsmove]Well it did not show

Although I have to admit my eyes were on your beautiful partner, rather than you
:wink:


...maybe that was my problem, Phil ;-)

G

..seriously, thanks for the advice & feedback. G

dancefiend
20th-November-2005, 04:24 AM
Graham,

The coupla drinks is probably what did the damage. Drinking clouds your senses.

Ghost
21st-November-2005, 01:25 AM
on saturday I tried dancing in front of people in a partnered group hip hop routine, and after being great in practice, choked

Don't know if this applies to you but...
There's a saying "The map is not the territory".
What I've found is that there's an inherent problem with practicing in that you get used to the <struggles for words> vibe, feeling, subtlies, flow, intrinsic to practice conditions. When you compete, because all these subtleties are different it can literally make you go :confused: as you try and reconcile the two (eg the level of aldreanline is probably different :whistle: ). In effect you may be trying to force the experience of practice onto the experience of display dancing and the mismatch causes you problems. Magicians do this by getting you to think it's in their left hand when in fact it's been safely in their right hand for the last 5 minutes - it's that same :confused: "how did he do that?" feeling. Ways of mitigating it are to practice in a similar way to you compete - convince helpful friends to be an audience etc. There's a few ways of raising your aldrenalin - best to see a professional though to be on the safe side if you want to practice this way. Thankfully the more experience you get, the more you'll differentiate the experiences and hopefully the easier it will become. Often knowing how the experience of a competion is different from the practice is helpful - yeah I now sounds obvious :blush: , but it's knowing how the feel of the dance is slightly different, how your partner will move slighly differently etc - they all add up. And it lets you 'let go' of the assumption that it's the same which helps.

Alternatively, the book "Adrenaline Stress Conditioning Through Scenario-based Training"~ by Peyton Quinn has some stuff you can adapt. Available from all good rivers :wink:

Hope that helps,
Take care,
Christopher

Saxylady
21st-November-2005, 11:15 AM
Sorry about the duff link - I think the BBC moved it and did a new page.

Hope this works: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/fivesteps/showcasing/performance.shtml