PERFORMANCE TIPS: The Emotion Factor- Turning Choreography into Connection

A Dose Of Danspiration- “Performance Tips: The Emotion Factor- Turning Choreography Into Connection” Originally posted January 27, 2025 “PERFORMANCE TIPS: AUTHENTIC EMOTIONS”

“It is with your feet that you move, but it’s with your heart that you dance.”

-Savion Glover

There are different factors that can contribute to performance inconsistency. For this post, I will touch on INCONSISTENT EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION FROM DANCER TO DANCER,

The number one question to ask is,

“What emotion do you think this piece evokes?”

It is incredibly important that everyone is on the same page. Make sure the response is VERY specific.

An ambiguous response that I commonly hear is, “Dark.”

What does that mean? Menacing, sulky, angry, threatening, depressed? Just in these listed interpretations, there could be quite a variation in how “darkness” is expressed.

Next, ask them how they would AUTHENTICALLY show that with their WHOLE BODY.

Our emotions are not solely expressed with our facial expression. We feel with our WHOLE BODY, from head to toe, from inward to outward.

When a dancer first starts out, we often tell him/her to “just smile.” But when we plaster a smile on our face and not use our eyes or the rest of our body, we are not being authentic, and the audience can feel that.

I explain it as when you ask someone, “How are you?” and they put on a simple smile and say “Fine.” Yet, based on the clues given by their body language, you know they are not expressing authentically their true emotional state. So instead of asking dancers for “facial expressions,” what we are really asking for is “FULL BODY EXPRESSION.”

Tip: Applying a personal memory or experience helps the performer tap into these emotions.

Practice tapping, full body, into the specific emotion every time the piece is practiced.

EVERY. TIME.

Make it a mental/emotional habit. Just as the movement becomes a physical habit, train their thoughts to become habit. Before they perform for their audience or judges, during warm up and especially while waiting in the wings, have them remember what that emotion is. Give them space to begin to feel it, connecting to their personal memories and experiences, and remember what that emotion AUTHENTICALLY feels like. Let this be the ONLY emotion they are feeling in those last moments before they take the floor.

Practice Exercise Idea…

GAME: “VIBE CHECK CHALLANGE”

• Put the dancers in smaller groups. For example, 4 groups of 4. One dancer is the performer; the others are the audience.

• Discreetly give the current performers an emotion to express and try to have the audience guess what the emotion is. The performers MUST do dance quality movement, nothing silly. The observers must ONLY watch the performer in their group.

• You can play music to match the emotion given OR really challenge both the dancer and the observers with music that doesn’t fit. Have the performers dance for about 15 seconds.

• If you have white boards or paper, have the observers write down what they think the emotion is.

• On the count of 3, flip the answer around and see if they got it correct.

• Then switch out the performer, give a different emotion, and repeat until everyone has had an opportunity to dance.

• At the end, let them reflect.

  • Did I achieve the goal of emotional communication?

  • If not, how can I do better? What do I need to do differently?

• Have them write down their responses and turn into coach/teacher. This gives the educator an insight into how to lesson plan for improvement in this area.

By practicing the emotional expectation of the piece and developing the habit of tapping into a character, you will find your dancers will connect with their audience on a more “personal” level and will help transport the observers to a different place for a brief period of time, creating a lasting impact beyond the performance.

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