If you dance, act, or do any performing arts, you know that no matter how long you keep doing it, you will need to be mentally prepared to resolve all kind of random things that could happen, or you need to control the mixture of feelings that invade you before entering the stage. Here are seven thing that happen before a performance:
1. You need to pee or puke.
It is normal to feel nervous, but it can also put you in uncomfortable situations. I hate it when I heard my cue (the music, or an specific dialogue) and suddenly I want to run to the toilet and pee. Fortunately for me, this sensation disappears after getting to the stage.
2. Do you enter from the left or right wing of stage?
One thing is to do rehearsals in a classroom or an specific space, and another thing is to perform in a different stage. If the stage is new to you, and if there wasn't enough time to explore it (or even to make a general rehearsal on it) then you might have this sensation of hesitation when you are about to go out from a wing and then wondering if you should be entering from the other side.
3. Mind goes blank.
Just a few more seconds and it's your turn to appear, but oops! You have no idea what's next! You have forgotten your text, the moves, the song. You have no one by your side to tell you what's next, and just two things can happen: you start remembering, or you go out and improvise hoping the best.
4. Injuries.
Nervousness also makes us more vulnerable. All of us have had to perform sick, but it is even worse when you need your body at its fullest, such as dancing. And maybe you managed to stay all day without any injury, but everything can still happen before or during the performance. At the moment of warming up you start feeling an intense pain like cramps, or you have a contracture, or even other major lesions. That's why it is always a good idea to have a substitute. (Btw, I'm the one with the bandage... I got a contracture while I was warming...)
5. Something is wrong with your costume.
On this type of accidents can make a huge difference in your performance. It seems banal but it's not funny to dance with broken point shoes, to show up with a falling wig, or to have a costume that reveals your boobs or other areas because it's torn, or too big or too small.
6. You are not ready before the call.
Sometimes your director needs more time with the lightning design or scenography. And your schedule won't be as you planned. Sometimes they will call you to the dressing rooms and tell you that the people are already entering to the theater, and you are half dressed while you try to do your makeup and hair at the same time.
7. Your partner is not okay.
Maybe you are the kind of person who is always ready for scene, but in most occasions the piece rely in more than just one interpreter. After all the time you spent together, you trust in him/her and you need him/her, and if he or she is not feeling good before stage (if he starts crying because he received a bad call; if she feels unconfident because of the director); then you have to deal with that energy on stage, and you have to give an extra push to the performance to make your partner react.
But hey,
Still, if you love it, you have to keep doing it.
