Photo by The LightworksIt’s quite intimidating to have to perform in front of a group of strangers, or even family and friends. It’s no wonder that many dancers are nervous when the time of their dance recital comes around. It may be hard to let go of nervousness, but there are some things that can help calm down frazzled nerves before the big performance.

Find ways to distract them through out the week. When they mention their nervousness about performing, say something encouraging to let them know that you have confidence in them and their abilities. Change the topic or find an activity that will help get their mind off of their uneasiness.

Have them practice, practice, practice. The more practice they do the more confident they will become in their dance routine. It will also give them an activity to do that will actually help them at the time of the recital.

Have them say a mantra to themselves repeatedly throughout the week. Some good ideas are “I can do this” or “I am a great dancer”. Positive reinforcement can go a long way with helping calm nerves, because if repeated enough one starts to believe it.

Have them dress up in their costumes at home. Dress rehearsals are a good way for them to get a feel of how the recital will go, and get comfortable with dressing in their costume. It will help calm the jitters of the big day because they have already done it before.

Arrive to the performance early. Make plans ahead of time to give yourself plenty of time to get to the recital. Things can get very stressful when you are already running late.

Walk them up on stage. If they are nervous you can stand with them backstage. Give them an encouraging hug right before they have to go on stage to give them extra assurance.

Finally, remind them that they are not going to disappoint the audience if they do make a mistake or two. The audience doesn’t know the choreography or dance routines, so the odds are that they won’t be able to tell when a mistake is made. There will be other nervous dancers out there, and thankfully they won’t have to go through this experience on their own.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 3:03 am and is filed under Parenting. 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.