"Be Very Afraid"

Clammy hands, a racing pulse, and a stomach whizzing with butterflies - if you've ever suffered from stage fright these symptoms won't come as a surprise. But for dancers preparing for shows, auditions and exams this summer, or competitions like September's Genée competition, these feelings could be all too familiar right now.

Will the judges like you? Will you remember the steps? Will you pull off that tricky pirouette? Performance nerves can be an irrational and unpredictable enemy, as many dancers have discovered.

Some people have turned to hypnosis to cure their nerves. Hypnotherapist Andy Barton has worked with a number of West End actors on anxiety issues. 'When we have an anxiety we project the self into the future and imagine things going wrong, and this is taken by the mind as an instruction,' he says. So by imagining yourself falling over, you could actually be more likely to do it. Barton has used hypnotherapy and neuro-linguistic programming techniques to successfully alter these destructive habits with his clients. 'There's been improvement in every case' he says, and sometimes a couple of sessions is all that's needed.

Lyndsey Winship

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