To continue with last issue's stage presence advice.....

Lift, look up and beyond, smile (but don't paste it on - music is so complex your facial expressions must reflect the various strands of the melody), and TAKE YOUR TIME. One other element in your stage presence package: Pacing yourself and not being too busy. If you think of yourself as an artist, and that your dance is a picture (in motion, of course), think of what you would rather look at: a serene painting (not a still life, but something that has organized color, texture, and a recognizable theme) or scribbling done by a young child. Of course the scribbler's mother will love it, just as will the husband, boyfriend, family, friends of the scribbler dancer love her frenzied dancing. But it gets very tiring to look at scribbled frenzied dancing.

You must slow down and pace yourself. You can be superbly energetic without being frenzied. You must work to complete a pattern or movement. This is not to say that if you do something 8 times on the right side you must do it 8 times on the left side, or that you have to have your dancing counted out and choreographed to the last beat. What it means is that you must be cognizant of the phrasing of the music, and change your movements when the phrase changes, not in the middle of it. There is something unsettling about watching a dancer who does not phrase her dancing to the phrasing of the music, or who does a certain movement and then jumps to another one (let's say on the 7th beat of an 8 beat phrase) when we expect her to do it one more time (even if the person watching doesn't consciously expect it one more time). This is a visceral reaction. No one is counting out beats while they watch you perform. But there is "just something" that's off about the dancing... The more you attend to the phrasing of the music, the more you will understand what I am talking about. This is a case where experience counts - it is usually very hard on a brand new dancer to pace herself - with the excitement of the performance beating in her heart. The more a dancer performs the easier it will become to pace herself. When a dancer uses choreography to taped music this is not as much of a problem, as the dance steps are counted out to match the beat. It is when a dancer dances with live music, or with taped music (but has not choreographed a dance to go with it), that this pacing issue becomes paramount. It is a skill that can be learned and must be practiced.

Regarding costuming (and I am not an expert here, and I defer to the wonderful costumers among us ): work towards not making your costumes too complicated - it's hard to take in and appreciate a costume that goes in too many color and stylistic directions. Buy a color wheel from an artist's store if you want to mix and match colors rather than go the monochromatic route. Also, learn what fabrics fall dead under various lighting conditions. More than once I have been startled at the beauty of a dancer's costume only as she was LEAVING the stage away from the lights. Under the lights a seafoam green or pink costume can look like a dull off-white. A green might look a drab brown. A deep blue might look black. Perhaps steer away from pastels and go more toward jewel tones or firey colors. If you are a regular dancer at one location, take swatches of fabric and bring them up to the stage area between shows to see how they look under the lights.

It is the whole package: The posture, the grooming, the facial expressions, the pacing, the costuming, the energy field - that make up stage presence. Work hard to improve and perfect each area. Technique alone does not a good dancer make. Certainly not a good entertainer!

Now a word about YOU getting the most out of your dancing. Even if you are not intending to perform (other than, perhaps, for close friends who have asked to see you dance) a lot of the advice I have given you still holds. You will feel better about yourself if you carry yourself in a proud, confident manner. Reaching out to connect with the energy of the audience does not preclude your connecting with yourself. And that is what I would like to address here briefly.

Many women find that this dance brings an inner peace and healing of the spirit to themselves. They find that as they turn themselves over to the music and allow the music to work through them, their dancing takes on an almost mystical quality. I have had students express this as the music and dance speaking to their souls. It is very obvious in a dancer's performance if she is giving herself over to the music and not worrying about her choreography (if she uses it), the audience, or her costume. Even if you are not dancing for an audience, and maybe especially if you are not dancing for an audience, it is important to release yourself and let the music move through you, and not be stopped and detoured at every worry, insecurity, or doubt. Meditation is all about being in the present and not letting your mind wander onto other things. Dancing can be that way too.

But in order to allow yourself to experience dance in this way, remember: You must practice your movements until you are sure that they will be executed in the manner you intend them to be; you must have practiced in your costume and have it pinned and snapped every-which-way so you don't have to worry about that; you have to know enough music, so when the first chords of the band are played you will be instantly at home with whatever they are playing for you; if you do use taped music with choreography, you must have practiced it enough so that you function on autopilot and do not have to count out steps and beats; your makeup and hair must be comfortable for you; and you must be practiced enough with the techniques of stage presence so that even if you were to falter in your "presence of dancing" the audience would hardly know it!

When you open yourself up as a vessel for the music and bask in that, you will experience the presence and immediacy of dancing. A dancer who is experiencing the dance as it happens - as the music is converted to movement, is in for a wonderful treat, as is her audience.