The Art of Professional Presentation Dr Xenia Pestova Director of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Art of Professional Presentation

Dr Xenia Pestova Director of Performance, University of Nottingham xenia.pestova@nottingham.ac.uk

Performance Anxiety

• What is it?
• My experience
• Some ideas
• Routines, mindful approaches, lifestyle

implications

• Resources

What is it?

• Natural response to a perceived threat (fight-or-

flight: Walter Cannon, American physiologist)

• Linked to stress
• Physiological symptoms:
• Rapid / irregular heartbeat, fast / shallow

breathing, weakness, tension, sweating, digestion problems, dry mouth, trembling, ...

My experience

• Playing (difficult) music (at times prepared under a

very tight deadline) in professional concert settings for about 20 years

• Musical performance: unpredictable patterns of

performance anxiety

• Never completely gone
• Adrenaline can enhance experience: in the

moment, alive, connected

Some Ideas

• Pre-performance routines
• "Backstage mode" - uphold an inner smile, move and speak calmly, be mindful
• f breath (Klickstein)
• Warm up physically before public speaking to interrupt the cycle of stress and

relax tight muscles (Robin and Balter)

• During: positive outlook, positive self-talk
• Difference between performing and practicing: looking forward rather than

backwards!

• Post-performance routines (Klickstein)
• Cool down, assess and move ahead
• Positive self-talk

Some Ideas

• Breathing routines and grounding approaches:
• Effective breathing - a tool in your anxiety reduction toolkit

(counteract shallow fast breaths: tissue box exercise; Robin and Balter)

• Awareness of anatomy and the breathing apparatus (Donna Farhi)
• Breathing enquiry exercises
• Alexander Technique
• Tai Chi and Qi Gong
• Yoga

Some Ideas

• Holistic thinking, mindfulness, being in the moment
• Acceptance of the body and things as they are,
• bserving without reacting
• General lifestyle adjustments to control anxiety
• "Mindful computing" - extending our bodies with

technology rather than overloading them (Alex Pang)

Some Ideas

• Ultimately: the only way forward is through - DO IT as much as

possible to identify coping strategies.

• Arrange opportunities to practice in safe contexts
• While it may never go away completely, anxiety DOES diminish.
• Familiarity with your material helps, and so does being passionate

about it!

• Mental practice and visualisation also effective
• Observe effective performance in different fields - attend talks,

conferences, musical performances with inspiring professionals

Nottingham Forum for Artistic Research

(Free entry, free wine & mince pies on December 9!) www.nottingham.ac.uk/go/ NottFAR

Resources

• Web:
• Beyond Stage Fright http://www.beyondstagefright.com
• Bulletproof Musician http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/
• Books:
• Farhi, Donna. The Breathing Book
• Klickstein, Gerald. The Musician's Way: a Guide to Practice, Performance and Wellness
• Pang, Alex Soojong-Kim. The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and

the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleagues, and Destroying Your Soul

• Robin, Mitchell W. and Rochelle Balter. Performance Anxiety
• Williams, Mark and Danny Penman. Mindfulness: a Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a

Frantic World