Teaching stage presence for performers has long stumped professionals throughout the arts. Some teachers bemoan that it just isn't something you can learn, you either have it or you don't. Some students choose dance styles where they don't have to smile as if that will solve their stage presence problem.
Research conducted with audiences demonstrate that 80% of the time they would rather see a dancer with good stage presence than one with excellent technique who looks uncomfortable on the stage. Even knowing this, as teachers we spend 95% of our time on technique. Our work on stage presence sometimes just consists of saying "ok, this time when we run through it make sure to smile."
In Part One of this two part class, we will draw from sports psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy to explore the ways you can teach students to improve their stage presence through techniques that focus on the Mind, Body, and achieving a state of Flow.
Your Instructor
Lisa Allred is a group improvisational belly dancer who initially fell in love with ATS® and now has added Fly Fusion® to her repertoire and is a Foundation Certified Teacher. After a long career dancing with and then directing Dayanisma (an ATS® professional troupe), Lisa has now founded the Red Sage Collective, which will be performing both ATS® and Fly Fusion®. Lisa can be found teaching weekly dance classes at World in Motion Dance in Morrisville, NC. Lisa also has event production experience, having served every year on the team that produces Reunion and ATS® Attacks, as well as producing her own event, Cirque du Slay. Lisa is also a licensed clinical social worker with over 30 years’ experience working with children, families, communities and nonprofits.
I attended a live session of the VERY helpful Stage Presence workshop presented by Lisa Allred & Natalie Lavorato. I'd recently read several books on new neuroscience research and was excited to see much of what I had learned from my personal research included in the session. Also surprising was that I had not thought to apply any of it to dance! The workshop clearly defined the disconnect between technique & stage presence in an easily understandable way. A simple questionaire was provided to assist in determining what would most impede the ability to achieve great stage presence, followed by how to best remove these impediments. Following that were great strategies, personal plan lists to prep yourself for stage comfort & audience engagement - simple body work methods, ways to connect to music/self, how to get into Flow,and more. I highly recommend this workshop to any dancer who would love to have great stage presence! Lynn Hoffman