Dealing with Competition Nerves

[pygmalion]

Okay, competitive dancers. Any tips or suggestions for how to calm competition nerves, or channel the energy so that it doesn't impede yuor performance?

[bouncybouncyweee]

I haven't competed, but I've performed... do you think there's a difference between the two?

I think doing something that you love that calms you down. Anything. I often hum my singing warm ups, just because that feels the most me. Or I go over a list in my head, over and over of what I should do, just repetetively, like a meditation perhaps.

[ballroomboilergirl]

I just competed for the first time yesterday and I was as nervous as a nun waiting for a pregnancy test (no offense to any of you who are nuns, lol) I was so nervous I was shaking for the first half of the competition which was smooth/standard, but I found as the day wore on I just got too tired to be nervous and I began to feel more at ease. One trick that seemed to help was to focus on a particular object...for rhumba, it made sense to look right at my partner, but for moves cha-cha crossover breaks, for example, I always looked at the same paiting that was at eye level with me on one of the walls...I think the intense gaze also added more emotion to the dances, so it kinda worked in more ways than one :) Hope this helped...