Performance without vulnerability is sterile
Performance without vulnerability is sterile.
Resisting giving yourself goosebumps means you're certainly not going to coax them out of your audience.
You can't fake that shiz.
Most singers I know adore artists who are willing to go there.
They praise the courage and raw emotion that draws them in like a moth to a flame. It's magnetic right?
And yet they themselves get on stage and pick apart every note that falls out of their mouth.
They overthink their technique or how they look and whatever magic could have been created is snuffed out.
If you want to be the type of performer who deals in chills and tears and heart explosions, you had better get to work on getting out of your own way.
Your million-miles-an-hour brain does not serve you under those lights or in that audition.
You need to drop into your body.
Let the music envelop you.
Allow the emotions connected to the song take you to another world.
And then it's simply a willingness to share that.
To be witnessed in your vulnerability.
To feel exposed and human and flawed and still trust enough to take your hands off the wheel.
To resist the urge to shrink and hold back.
Because we all feel stuck in the battle of wanting to be truly seen and wanting to hide.
And I get it, sometimes the regimented practice room and the black and white analysis of technique feels safer.
It's a comfort blanket.
It's clear cut.
It's right or wrong.
And that'll serve you right up until you step out of rehearsal and into performance.
Right up until you're wanting to share your voice, your stories, your truth with someone else.
Someone desperate to feel you.
To connect with you.
To really see you.
To be moved by your experiences, your joy and your pain.
That's when you need to throw the comfort blanket off and dive headfirst into uncertainty and vulnerability.
You CAN be that performer. Right now.
It just takes a few moments of white-knuckled bravery.
Admit that you want it, then go out there and make it happen.