For Ballroom dancers, your lessons are only part of the equation.
It's normal to feel more comfortable learning how to dance, than using what you have learned, you know, "in public". File this in the same category as an outfit that you love, buy, and leave hanging in the closet with the tags on.
There's a process to developing your "dance-in-public" confidence. The only catch?
It requries an audience. Four of them, to be exact.
Why Ballroom Dancers Need These 4 Audiences
Audience #1: Your Instructor
As odd as this may seem, this first challenge has stopped many people from taking their first steps into an Arthur Murray Dance Studio. The thought of dancing, or learning how to dance, in front of a professional can seem like too great a burden on someone with no dance experience.
Dance Performance Fact: Arthur Murray became famous for helping people with zero dance experience, and asking people to perform on their first lesson would have shut the company down 99 years ago.
Audience #2: Your Peers
Your first group class will build your dance skills, and your confidence equally. It will also serve as evidence that you are not the only new dancer in that zip code. Every group class will take what you are learning and apply it to an environment that, simply by the number of people present, will begin to move the needle on your dance confidence.
Dance Performance Fact: Private lessons build your skills, but group classes expand your skils and comfort zone.
Audience #3: A Performance
Dancing with other people around at a dance event, like the District Showcase, is a performance - but won't feel like one. Why? There is no spotlight, no solo performance, and you're dancing with a group of people on the floor throughout the course of a day.
Dance Performance Fact: The number of minutes you dance at a showcase can take you from nervous to "too-tired-to-care" in the same afternoon.
Audience #4: Your Most Important Audience
At some point, somewhere on your dance journey, you'll encounter a pivotal moment. As innocent as it may seem, it will test every fiber of your confidence, and dance skills.
"Let me see some moves."
That's what it sounds like. The setting can be a family function, or a friendly get together. They are your friends and family, and they're your most important audience. They know you take dance lessons, they're excited to know more, and - even if it sends prickly shards of pure nervousness up your spine - you must not let them down.
Dance Performance Fact: This audience will continue to question, or completely endorse your ballroom dance hobby. This will pressure test your dance confidence, but if you can dance for your family in your living room - you can dance anywhere in front of a bunch of strangers.
Final Thought
Your dance confidence is like a bank.
The deposits you make are those uncomfortable, pressure testing moments that make your heart beat a little faster. The reason why some people don't look nervous when they dance is because they've made enough deposits to withdraw large amounts of confidence when they need to.
The more audiences you stockpile, the more equipped you'll be when life presents a public dance moment.
You've got the moves, now it's time to take them public.
