I grew up performing in my living room for friends and family at the drop of a hat.
Though I didn’t love it at the time, I realize now what incredible training this was for my work today and for teaching kiddos.
When we give our children the opportunity of successful “low-key” performances or “informances” we set them up for larger and larger audiences with higher stakes where they can experience performance on a higher level.
Our music recitals and dance recitals as well as our little plays and music shows, art galleries, are all in the form of an ‘open studio’ for families so that our children can be celebrated, wherever they are in their artistic journey, sharing a song as simple as “Mary had a little lamb” on the piano at Steinway and then one day playing Mozart’s concerto.
Giving them a quality piano, a supportive family experience, a chance to put on a nice outfit in which they feel good and go out for a nice lunch with family afterward, these are positive experiences which “crystalize ” the positive rather than the negative – these experiences need to be “crystalizing” rather than “paralyzing” and it’s the road to success!
Let’s set up our kiddos for such success today and know that it’s a journey — ages 3-5 should be exploratory (see blog #1) and then after this we can go into shared informances with other family members, parents, older siblings, cousins, friends, etc. and then on and on — the anxiety and fear of performance is normal, we need to learn breathing techniques such as diaphragme breathing and mental focus, which help us in life no matter what we do.
