As part of an entry in a dance competition I have to write an essay. The prompt was "Describe the emotion you feel when you take the stage at competition." Here's my entry:
State of Mind
I am a performer. You are a performer. Every one of us is a performer. Every smile, every tear, every interaction, and every conversation is a performance. Likewise, every performance is a conversation. When I get on the stage, I become a vessel for energy and expression. It is my duty to give that to my audience and to make them feel what I feel. But that still brings us down to a final question: what do I feel? What is the emotion, the expression, the power that I cannot help but pass on to my audience?
The answer to the question is both surprisingly simple, and unimaginably complex. As I wait to enter the stage I feel relaxed and focused. As I walk onto the stage I feel the surge of energy beginning to flow through me, radiating outward through my limbs all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes. But the instant the music starts is when everything really happens. It took me a while to figure out what goes on inside my head when I dance, but I finally realized that it’s not an overwhelming rush of emotion, but rather an overwhelming rush of music. Even when there is no music, I find my own music either in my mind or in my surroundings. The music engulfs me and sends its energy pulsing through my body. It was only after I understood the source of my energy that I also realized that the music is not just a background track for the choreography. In fact, the complete opposite is true: the choreography is a physical representation of the energy that flows from the music. Thus, I, the dancer, am the only possible means of communication between that choreography and the audience.
You see, when I get up on stage, I don’t perform for my audience. I communicate with them. The word “perform” implies that I consider myself to be the main focus of my actions, which is simply not true; it’s all about the music. The music is what I have to communicate, and therefore the music is my emotion. Emotion (n.): a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationship with others.
