I agree with the notion of channelling the nervous energy down through
your feet and into the ground beneath them. But I've also found it can
help to try and channel some of the energy upwards into (excuse me, those
who are squeamish about such things) your "erotic centre" (i.e., between
the legs). Focusing on become a bit more aware of that part of my
anatomy, I've found, can do a lot to dissipate the shaking and trembling
elsewhere (I get it less in my legs, more in my hands). Also, I've found
that between the legs is the one place I can clench, tense, etc. without
any detrimental effect to the rest of my singing. So instead of tensing
my jaw, fist, locking my knees, or any other such tension that would be
counterproductive to free, relaxed vocalising, I tense my buttocks between
my legs, and I find that goes a long way towards refocussing the nervous
energy in a way that actually helps.
I also find that getting as completely into character as possible before
ever walking out onstage is also a great help. I know this can be
difficult to accomplish before an audition - particularly some of the
really STUPID auditions I've done where the auditors want to chat with you
*before* you have a chance to sing (I remember one particularly inane
audition where the entire audition panel stood up and started shaking
hands with me - and one of the auditors was my own dramatic coach, who I
thought should have known much better; so there I was, in "full Katisha
mode" - having worked very hard to get into character in the waiting area
outside the audition room - having, *in character as Katisha*, to glad
hand these auditors before being allowed to sing "Alone and yet alive". I
don't know what kind of impression I must have made - I imagine they
thought me very rude because my mindset was that of a middle-aged woman
with a disturbingly gleeful blood-thirsty streak about to lament her
romantic frustrations and anguish, and not that of Karen Mercedes,
eager-to-please mezzo-soprano; well, to hell with them if they were put
off by it - it was their own fault for running the audition so stupidly -
now that I'm done with that digression). But it can also be extremely
helpful in helping avoid a huge build-up of pre-audition or
pre-performance nerves in the first place, because you are focussing all
your mental energies in "make believe", and not on the reality of your
situation. Plus it can only make your performance better.
Karen
-----
Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt,
Der in den Zweigen wohnet;
Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt,
Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet.
-- J.W. von Goethe, WILHELM MEISTER
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
|
