Don’t Forget to Smile! Using Your Face Onstage

When we think about how we can improve our dancing, we often think of things like straight legs, pointed toes, stretched arms. But, if even the most technical dancer does not execute facial expressions, the quality of the performance will suffer and the audience is unable engage with the dancer.

Think of using your face onstage as an essential part of your performance, just like pointing your toes or remembering choreography. Especially with the concert coming up soon, we’ll need to remember to bring our smiles with us onstage!

Tips for using facial expressions are:

• Use your eyes – make sure to smile with your eyes and to keep them engaged and focused on the audience to create a connection with them
• Practice/choreograph faces for certain moments in the music
• Keep your eye line high – even if you think you’re looking high enough, it can often appear from the audience that you are looking down – to compensate for this try to look higher than you think you need to
• Use variety – to have the best stage presence ensure you are including plenty of variety in using your eyes – follow the mood of the music and use eyebrows, look to the side, and up and down as you dance to keep it interesting

We can’t wait to see everyone’s smiles up onstage this concert weekend!

Dance Factor is a Wollongong-based dance studio, offering classes in all styles for all ages and abilities. If you are interested in enrolling or trialling a class or have any general enquiries contact info@dancefactor.com.au.