Useful research:
“control what you can- Prepare for your performance in every way possible. Give yourself enough rehearsal. Assemble everything you'll need for the show, from your favourite sports drink to extra bobby pins, ahead of time. Develop a go-to warmup routine that gets you in the zone” - This is a great way to ease anxiety for a dancer as it’s a way for them to know they are fully prepared. By developing a routine, it creates a habit which means over time you’ll become more organised and prepared which will lower the fear of being unprepared - https://www.dancemagazine.com/performance-anxiety
“‘fight or flight’- sweaty palms, breathlessness, dizziness and heart palpitations are indicators of anxiety, but also are reactions to the fight or flight response. The adrenaline produced from the response can turn into a panic attack. These can be frightening and the sufferer believing that they will stop breathing”- This is an example of the panic disorder type of anxiety. Showing the symptoms and the thoughts of the dancer experiencing a panic attack. As a dancer when there isn’t something to fight or to run from physically, we let all this adrenaline build up, this then forming the panic attacks – https://www.dancelongerdancestronger.com/anxiety-and-the-dancer
“Anxiety can be a reaction to a variety of situations, and may be experienced in several ways.
• Phobias: dread that overwhelms anxiety suffers when faced with a feared object, situation or activity. Social Phobia: a paralyzing feeling of self-consciousness about social situations and an intense fear of doing something wrong in front of others or of being observed.
Performance Anxiety: commonly referred to as “stage fright” can be a distressing and disabling condition that affects performers: at least half of all artists regardless of age, gender and talent or experience report problems associated with performance anxiety, it may be situation specific such as rehearsing with new choreographers, auditions or opening nights.
• Panic attacks: can occur without warning and are sudden feelings of terror. They are usually accompanied by physical symptoms and often fear of dying, some dancers can perform before 3,000 people but are unable to go grocery shopping.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: having survived or witnessed a terrifying life-threatening experience can lead to nightmares, flashbacks, depression, anger and irritation, individuals with this disorder can startle easily and can lose interest in activities they formerly enjoyed.
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): a person with OCD has unwanted and intrusive thoughts, and /or rituals that interfere with their life. Rituals such as checking, touching, or counting are common. They may be preoccupied with cleanliness and may hoard things. OCD runs in families and many people report that they first developed symptoms as children.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): This disorder is characterized by repeated exaggerated worry about routine life events and activities. The symptoms tend to get worse over time and the person has catastrophic fears.” - The 5 main types of anxiety and what they entail, when we put these with dancer related experiences it’s easier to understand the struggles the dancers face -https://dance-usa.s3.amazonaws.com/page_uploads/AnxietyTips.pdf
“in a field that’s filled with stressful situations – like castings, audition jitters, contract renewals, mountain bills and stage fright” - This effectively gives examples of why a dancer could have anxiety, also relating the anxiety to dancers in general. These are a few of many reasons and the ‘stressful situations’ hamper on a dancer’s confidence in which GAD starts to develop – https://pointemagazine.com/anxiety-dancers
“1. Focus on strengths as much as your weaknesses, 2. understand your capabilities, 3. control the controllable and lest the rest go.” - keeping this in mind will help keep a dancer in a balanced mindset, instead of being doubtful or arrogant. I think that these three points are a great coping mechanism, it points out what the dancer should work on; instead of wallowing in anxiety about not being good enough - https://pointemagazine.com/anxiety-dancers
“I became paralysed with fear and anxiety. I couldn’t do anything for nine months. I stopped going to class and I stopped dancing” - this displays the struggles dancers suffer from anxiety. For a non-dancer the consequences aren’t seen as major however they are critical as they can make or break the dance career as every day not spent in the studio is a risk that someone will overtake you; this being one of the reasons why dancers push themselves too hard – https://www.dancespirit.com/one-dancers-journey-through-depression-and-anxiety
“the dance world has changed since I left it. Nutrition discussions are moving from low-fat to whole foods. Cross training is the norm and new styles of movement and body types are slowly finding their place. But this taboo remains, and it’s too important to ignore.” - With this you can tell improvements are being made about dancer’s wellbeing, however this is mainly with the physical problems such as body image whereas mentality is being dismissed; making it seem as if it’s not important – https://www.dancemagazine.com/why-are-we-still-so-bad-at-adressing-dancers-mental-health
“panic, fear, uneasiness, insomnia, not being able to stay calm, cold; sweaty, numb or tingling hands or feet, shortness of breath, racy heart, dry mouth, nausea, tense muscles and dizziness”- these are the general symptoms of anxiety, it’s easier to know if someone is suffering if you look out for these signs. These all create a drained effect on a dancer which leads to a mediocre performance. Spotting them are slightly hard as dancers are always putting up a front as they don’t want to be vulnerable – https://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/anxietydisorders
“anything worth doing is worth doing badly the first time” - I think this is a good quote to remember as it reminds the dancer that it takes time and practice to get things right and that it’s good to learn from the mistakes you make - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWloIAQpMcQ
I came up with a few questions to ask my peers whether or not they have suffered from anxiety, here are the questions I asked:
do you experience any anxiety in dance? Who do you feel you can express your anxiety to?
Are you doing anything to help it? Why do you think you have anxiety?
Do you think it's caused because of dance or another factor in life?
Does dance help or make it worse? Do you see yourself getting better?
How does it affect your dancing life? How do you cope with it?
"Yes, I do experience anxiety within dance, I believe every dancer does or at least has. It’s often in varying degrees of intensity for each individual which can be affected by many different factors, such as personal experiences like embarrassing yourself on stage or just not being able to connect with other dancers. Personally, I prefer not talking to people about my anxiety, especially around people who also experience it. This may be because I feel as though I’m not justified enough to be talking about my issues when others make it out as though they are going through much worse and it makes me feel as though I’m being insensitive.Despite this, I know I can always talk to my friends and teachers, even though it could be seen as a sign of weakness, so I wouldn’t talk to them about it too much, just enough so that they know about it but not concerned. I have tried to suppress my anxiety however, as most of us know, it is not something we can help. It’s not possible for my anxiety to go away, but there are some things that are with in my power that I’m trying to take action with. I think I have anxiety for many reasons, I already have social anxiety without dance, which makes partner work hard and the mirrors during class make it very easy to pick apart yourself and dance clothes hide nothing and we are our worst critic. My anxiety stems from both dance and another source. Dance in of itself doesn’t affect me, the surroundings i.e.: mirrors, are what adds to my anxiety. I don’t dance to escape, though I know it’s common for people to, I dance because I enjoy it and never want to stop improving and developing myself to be the best dancer I can be. I do see myself getting better though, I know I’ll be able to change parts of myself and adapt to be who I want to be. That will give me more confidence, it’s hard to say whether that will help with social anxiety but a confidence boost may help. The anxiety I feel effects my dancing a lot, more than I show. The main feeling in dance is feeling the music and movement running through your body, but I can’t do that. I have such a large disconnect between myself and my body that sometimes I feel bad when dancing, it contradicts my love and passion for dance which tears me apart. All I can do is work hard on changing myself, so that I can always feel happy, keeping a positive mindset, telling myself that I’ve just got to keep training and that I can’t complain if it’s something that I can control. "
“Yes, I experience anxiety in dance. Mainly when presenting choreography to people as I worry that they won’t like what I’ve created. When I feel anxiety relating to dance, I feel like I can express it to my friends. I’m currently seeing a therapist for multiple reasons, and anxiety is one. I have no clue as to why I have anxiety. I believe I have anxiety from another factors in my life and that it isn’t caused by dance. Dance is one of the few things that helps me feel less anxious about a situation. When I’m dancing, I feel as though I have nothing to worry about so it’s a great way for me to feel less anxious. I think I can get better. I normally feel anxiety during dance when I have a performance or a new choreography that I have to present to people. Usually, I feel anxiety because I’m worried about their reactions and opinions of my craft. Sometimes my anxiety causes me to doubt my choreography. It also makes me less confident in myself and therefore I create less choreography. To cope with my anxiety, I like to make lists and schedules to keep myself organised. Also, I listen to music to calm myself down.”
“I experience anxiety in dance constantly. I feel I can express my anxiety to my friends and my councillor. I’m trying to think positive thoughts and take myself away from anxiety provoking situations to try and help. I think I have anxiety because of certain people and also how I view myself in society. I honestly think my anxiety it’s caused by a mix of the two. Dance used to be a way of coping with my mental health difficulties but when I ended up with dance teachers who constantly undermined me and made me feel useless among other students then it definitely raised my anxiety and made me lose interest in dance. I believe that having a teacher who doesn’t always look as the negatives and doesn’t deliberately take advantage of my anxiety and other mental health problems will definitely help me get better. It unfortunately has made me feel like I’m not good enough to be a dancer, that I’m not going to achieve anything and made me put a lot a lot of pressure into myself. It also recently has started affecting me physically as I’ve realised I’m out of breath easily and always feeling faint and wobbly and this has now started to show in my dancing”
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