How to overcome being nervous or anxious when dancing in front of people ?

Dec. 16

How do not get nervous when people are watching?

They get nervous when people they know watch them or especially when an instructor is watching. what are some ways to ease my mind out of this? Or what are some techniques you've done to not be nervous?

It's normal to get nervous around your instructor in class, since it's their job to scrutinize you.
IMO, it's good if your instructor watches you and gives you constructive criticism. It will make you a better dancer in the long-run.

if you want to impress the teacher, good learning practices are more impressive. Having a Good attitude, especially about failing and trying again. Because there will be a lot of failing. That's how people learn, and that is what everybody has done a lot in dance class.

Try re-focusing your attention on the music, your partner, your steps. Try making eye contact more, or paying attention to the lyrics.
So you need to find yourself in the music. Concentrate on it. You'll need a level of musicality about you, and probably a little more advanced ability for this, because you need to be able to do everything you're doing whilst not focussing on it - that comes with time. Being able to continue a perfect basic without having to focus on the steps, just focussing on the music is a hell of a skill though, and you learn so much more about how to dance when you're fully focussed on the music.

The second big thing is something that anyone can do as long as you're open to self-criticism. Figure out exactly what you're doing, whether it's a right turn, suzie-q, cbl, whatever. Then work out exactly what has gone wrong with what you're doing and start correcting it yourself, forcing yourself to think about those things. It takes you right in to your own little bubble. Record yourself dancing.

I think the more you practice, the more confidence you get and the less nervous you become.
Personally, it helped my mindset to realize that failure is a part of learning. We sometimes try so hard to be perfect that we forget mistakes are part of the process. So yeah, I might get things wrong at times, but I’ll learn something out of it in the end.
Even the greats had to learn their craft and started from zero (at which point they probably weren’t that good). So, if the greats were not awesome at some point, we can allow ourselves screwing up here or there :)

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