Sparked by the discussion on Jesse’s post about quality vs. quantity, the subject of performing came up. This week, I’d like to share my vision and own experience in performing. In the past 4-5 years, I have seen a LOT of shows and performed numerous times myself, which hopefully gives me the credibility to do so!
No matter what your medium is (live performance, video, text) or how big or small the group is, you are asking your audience to give up some of their time to focus on whatever it is that you bring them. This leaves you with a great responsibility, because you somehow need to satisfy your audience through your actions in order to thank them for their time. Here are some essential, basic steps you should consider to accomplish a well structured performance.
Your audience
First, you need to appreciate the essential difference between performing for an audience that knows how that spinning toy works (the juggling audience) and performing for a laymen audience (the non-juggling audience). The juggling audience can be divided into different groups. For example, you could face dealing with an audience that mainly consists of fellow diaboloists, or one that consists of all kind of jugglers. The non-juggling audience can differ as well — from young kids to the elderly or a mixed group. The size of your audience and the distance that is between you and the audience matters greatly as well. Also worth considering is the venue you will be performing at. What kind of stage will you be on? How are your tricks going to look from an audience point of view?
Once you have determined the size and type of audience, you can choose your approach and balance the content of your act between simple and hard, classical and experimental, epic and subtle, and so on.
Stay realistic
Another important aspect about performing you should realize is that it’s nearly impossible to pull off your act without any mistakes. I don’t necessarily mean big mistakes like a drop or a tangle, but there are always things that won’t go as planned. You might forget a trick or mess up a move, which will make it look different. You might have to correct more than you’d like and mess up the choreography. There are many factors in a juggling performance to be considered. You can’t control all of them. You can, however, prepare your performance to keep the flaws and potential drops to a minimum.
Full control
For instance, master your tricks. If you can do your tricks with any diabolo, any sticks, any string, in any lighting condition, and on any surface, then you’re ready to do them on stage. When you’re on stage you have to deal with an unfamiliar environment. Not to mention the nerves and (time) pressure! The consistency of the tricks you can do 9 out of 10 times in practice, will be reduced to about 6 out of 10 times on stage – it makes that much of a difference.
Once again: your audience
Secondly, be aware of your audience. You’re performing for them, so recognize them as your audience. Look into the audience occasionally, build in pauses and poses to give your audience the time to show you their appreciation by applauding for you. If you won’t, your first applause will be during your first drop. Now we don’t want that to happen, do we?
You
Last, but not least, be aware of yourself. You should stand on that stage feeling relaxed and confident. Don’t rush things, don’t panic when something goes wrong. Start off with simple things to gain some stage experience and to get rid off those raging nerves you will experience the first few times. If you’re enjoying yourself, so will your audience. Film your act so you can analyze it. Ask fellow performers for their opinion. Start off with a small audience.
Watching, analyzing, and performing your routine over and over again can make it very boring to you. It’s essential that you keep the energy consistent on stage and that you keep presenting your performance as if it were the first time — although improved by the experience you gained from the first few times!
Guido van Hout, a friend of mine and great performer, once told me he tries to be aware of his pinky toes during performing, just to stay alert.
What has helped you in performing?
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