“My mental preparation for performance extends as far back as my very first rehearsal for it. Having a complete understanding of my role and practicing the movement to the music so that it becomes innate is essential for my confidence and conviction in the show. When I know I've done all that hard work, I can surrender myself to enjoying the show and the magical spontaneity of live theatre.
On the night, having thought through the previous show's notes and briefly ironing out any problematic moments in the studio, the final minutes before I step onstage are spent meditating. I try to channel any negative energy to become positive. Depending on the role, there are other elements in this meditation. For a narrative ballet, it involves becoming the character and placing myself in their story. I give myself a context; I imagine what they would be doing in the moments before their choreography begins. When I dance Juliet Capulet, I am visualising my Nurse play-chasing me around the garden, before exploding with windswept abandon into my bedroom onstage. In an abstract piece, I meditate on the music and visualise my movement and emotional response to it. Sometimes it's words that inspire me too; when I performed the pas de deux in MacMillan's Concerto, I would recite some of my favourite lines of poetry.
Finally, there are the reminders, especially on difficult days: why I dance, who I dance for, and what a blessing it is to be there, in that moment and in that place.”
- JULIET BURNETT, Senior Artist, the Australian Ballet
How do you settle your nerves and prepare yourself in those vital moments before stepping on stage? Read other accounts from Ty King-Wall (Australian Ballet), Tanya Mitford (An Officer and a Gentleman), David Williams and Elise May (Expressions Dance Company) and Zaimon Vilmanis (independent) in the June/July issue of Dance Australia. OUT NOW!