Have you ever debuted an original work, only to discover that your concept ‘didn’t land’ with your audience?

Do you struggle with mental preparation for stage, and the ability to remain present in your experience when performing for a crowd?

If your answer to either question was yes, you might want to consider adopting a performance visualization practice.

Visualization, as defined by the American Psychological Association is:

The process of creating a visual image in one’s mind or mentally rehearsing a planned movement in order to learn skills or enhance performance.

Visualization helps us build belief in our own capacity while enhancing our chances of reaching and achieving our goals in alignment with our vision for them.

Visualization happens when we imagine what we want to achieve in the future as though it were already true and taking place in the present moment, inviting all five senses to join in constructing and experiencing the details of our desired outcome.

Visualization helps lay the groundwork for embodiment — in this context, our truest-self expression of our vision in physical form.

The idea that mental preparation is equally as important as physical preparation for successful performance is nothing new in science or psychology. With a quick Google, you can see that there is plenty of research to support the proven benefits of visualization as a performance-enhancing tool.

You’ve probably heard of professional athletes completing intense performance visualizations before heading out onto the field for competition — as an entertainer, the benefits of creative visualization are also there for you to begin reaping right now.

“You can’t do anything that you can’t picture yourself doing. Once you make the picturing process conscious and deliberate, you begin to create the self you want to be.”
– Anonymous

TRY THIS AT HOME:

Here’s a simple yet powerful visualization tool that I have used throughout my burlesque and live entertainment career as a sort of ‘concept check’ when starting work on a new act.

It is a grounding, confidence-boosting, clarity-creating, get-you-in-the-zone creative visualization that can be put into practice from your performance’s conceptualization through its execution.

Depending on where you are in your development process, it may take anywhere from 5-20mins to complete this visualization. I have found it most effective when undertaken right before bed at night, and/or before getting out of bed in the morning.

The key to its effectiveness is not rushing yourself — give yourself the time to delve into your senses within the visualization, making it as real as it can be each time you practice it, remaining present in your experience of it throughout.

NOTE FOR THE SELF-DOUBTERS: It is okay (and important) to give yourself permission to imagine yourself at your best, and allow that to feel good. Let that settle in for a moment, please.

Try to move through this visualization without judgment. This is of extreme importance.

You are someone who has chosen the performer’s experience as a portal for your own personal expansion, expression, and connection. You can choose right now to improve your entire journey by embracing the most important relationship (of many) you will need to develop for a feeling of ‘success’ in this endeavor — the one you have with yourself. 

That is the most valuable intent of the first half of this visualization.

With this tool, you can create a positive feedback loop and personal empowerment cycle for yourself that, especially if you are a new performer, is valuable to activate from day one. 

Here’s how it works:

• Lay down comfortably with your eyes closed and take a few calming breaths, allowing your body to relax fully into sensation and your mind to clear.

• Imagine the stage/space you want to perform this act in (if you know already). If not, imagine a venue with a full house, stage lights up, and your stage name being announced by the emcee.

• Let yourself feel the energy of the crowd on the other side of the curtain, taking in the buzz and hum of their anticipatory chatter as they wait excitedly for you to take to the stage.

• Imagine standing behind that stage curtain in full costume, your hair and makeup perfection, with all of the sensations running through your body in those moments before you step out into the audience’s view. If you feel any anxiety or resistance emotions coming up for you here, hold yourself in this moment, breathing evenly, until you reach a grounded state and can move on with the visualization. Allow yourself to be here until you are fully grounded in this moment, and then step out onto that stage.

• At the beginning of your development process, go ahead and let the exact details of what you are doing be fuzzy (you can’t know what you don’t know yet). Focus on all of the details of the experience that you can see through the perspective of your own eyeballs, experiencing your energy and the crowds, stage lights in your eyes, with the floor sturdy under your feet.

• Mentally run through the entire act as best as you are able to with your song in mind, with all of the concept info you have for yourself at this point playing out. Try to really feel every movement, with the intention and energy you wish to put behind it.

• When the act is complete and you have held your final pose to soak in and honor your audience’s wild cheers and applause, exit stage and head back behind the curtain.

Now, take another breath, and prepare to repeat that entire experience from your audience’s point of view:

• As someone sitting in the front row, experience your act all over again like you just did, but through their eyes. Begin from the moment the emcee is calling out your stage name and the audience offers anticipatory applause for your entrance.

• Take in the details of your performance (that you can see), from this perspective beginning to end.

• Focus on how as an audience member, you feel impacted by the energy of your embodiment during the performance.

• Think about how clearly (or not) you are able to follow the concept or narrative of the act as it is playing out.

• Follow this visualization all the way through to your stage exit, and, as an audience member, take a beat to process and digest everything you just witnessed.

From the audience’s perspective, this visualization can operate as your internal entertainer’s responsibility check.

After processing this visualization from the audience’s perspective, you may ask yourself (or use these questions as writing prompts): 

Did I connect to the energy coming from this performance? 

Was the concept of the act easy to comprehend?

Did it maintain my attention? Where were the spots my attention drifted?

Was the content harmful in any way to the positive outcome of my experience? 

By taking your performance into the public arena, you become a public figure. Remaining conscious of, and connected to, your audience’s experience in that arena is part of your responsibility as a performer.

As I have written about in my piece on active fandom and the burlesque community here, it is valuable to understand the relationship between arts practitioners and arts supporters, and the dynamic and synergy we honor within that relationship.

I encourage you to never lose your fandom for your art form and continually find ways to reactivate and re-engage with that interest.

By approaching your next performance mindfully and making the most of your physical rehearsal and creative visualization practices, you will be on the road to punching up your experience and impact on stage before you know it.

xoxo,

Jay