Performance tips for dancers

Hi, I’m Avery Zerr. I have been dancing at Allegro Performing Arts Academy for 8 years, this is my 3rd year on Pre- Pro and my 6th year on the Precision Dance Company.

One of my favorite parts of dancing is performance. Performance allows you to step into the character or into the feeling and emotion the dance is suppose to portray. When I am training my choreography for a certain piece, I like to give myself time to first really know the choreography of the dance. Once I know the choreography, this allows me to not have to think about the steps in the dance and to be able to focus on the story or character I want to portray. It’s kind of like learning the words to your favorite song and once you know the words, you can put your style into the song. It lets you add your personality.

I really find this helpful, particularly for a solo, duo or trio, is finding time to go through my dance, focusing only on my performance because I have already taken the time to learn the steps. I slowly go through my dance and add on performance to specific moves or moments which allows me to start to tell the story of my piece. This can take some time, but it really adds to the overall visual of your dance. A pro tip to remember when working on performance, is that one emotion can have many different ways to show it. When you are portraying sadness, don’t just keep one face to show your sadness. Try to figure out what your sadness is .are you heart broken, are you lonely, are you regretful, what does your sadness look like? Remember performance is not just facial it is also your movement. Thinking and training your performance can add more depth to your dance. When I have specific performance on specific parts or moves of the dance those often become memorized or natural just like the dance moves in the choreography. This happens with practice. This allows me to focus on the parts of the dance that might not have specific performance. Having non-choreographed parts in my dances allows me to not become stagnant in the way I perform because I can play around with how I tell a story or who my character is.

Top 3 tips to being a good performer:

1. To learn your choreography really well so that it is automatic, that takes practice, time and effort. You have to put the time in to see the results.

2. Understand the type of performance you are suppose to be portraying. Don’t be silly, if you are suppose to be sad.

3. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone when it comes to performance. It is better to be told to tone it down than to be told you need more.