I am currently reading a book called “Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment” by George Leonard. One of the points he makes is that because our culture is so focused on instant gratification, our culture does not encourage mastery (in anything) which takes long-term practice with much time spent on plateaus that are only occasionally rewarded with upward spurts in progress. It takes patience and dedication to achieve mastery.
This made me think about recital time. It’s the time of year when dance students everywhere get to show off the results of all of their hard work in the classroom. It can be exciting or scary, but in any case hopefully fun. And of course everyone wants to do their best. The thing is that performing is a skill in and of itself, and it is only developed by performing. It’s hard to be perfect at something when you don’t have many chances of honing that particular skill.
This is not to say that all beginning or intermediate level dancers will perform poorly or make mistakes, but sometimes we
can be our own worst enemy by putting pressure on ourselves to be perfect. It is possible to make some of your biggest strides in performing by allowing yourself to make mistakes. This doesn’t mean that by allowing yourself to make mistakes that you will necessarily make them. It will just take off some of the pressure to be perfect, which will then allow you to focus more completely on your performance and ultimately do a better job – and have more FUN!
Good luck and good performances to you all!