Battling Audition Nerves? Try These Pro Tips.
I will never forget how I felt as a teenager in the weeks leading up to summer intensive auditions. Would the class be hard? Would the teachers be nice? How would I measure up to the other dancers? What if I didn’t get in?
Most dancers battle nerves before summer program auditions, which is totally understandable—you’re entering an environment where you’re about to be evaluated by people you hope to be trained by. “There’s a high level of judgment that comes with that,” says Leigh Skvarla, PhD, LCP, a performance consultant, former dancer, and co-founder of The Center for Grit and Growth. But your nerves don’t have to consume you—and they can actually be a good thing. As audition season approaches, read on for tips on how to build confidence and get your jitters under control.
Before Auditions
Practice functional self-talk: In the weeks leading up to your auditions, pay attention to your inner dialogue, says Skvarla. “Negative self-talk can trigger a fight-or-flight response,” Skvarla says, including panic, fear, and physical symptoms like increased heart rate. Try practicing what she calls “functional self-talk”: “Keep it optimistic, but realistic. So pumping yourself up with ‘I’m the best dancer in the world’ is highly unrealistic, as opposed to ‘I deserve to be here,’ ‘I’ve worked so hard this year,’ etc.”

Notice your strengths: Similarly, you may feel hyper-focused on “fixing” your weaknesses in class before auditions. Instead, try owning exactly where you’re at, says former professional dancer Kirsten Kemp, a high-performance-mindset coach and founder of The Confident Dancer. “You don’t need to be radically different now than you are in an audition,” says Kemp. “Shift your focus to your standout qualities in class. They can be artistic, technical, even something like being a fast learner. See if you can enhance them, enjoy them more, showcase them in a way that feels good for you.”
Manage reactions to mistakes: “We give mistakes so much power,” says Kemp. “We imagine auditioners doing really dramatic things, like crossing our name off of the list.” But dancers mess up combinations and fall out of turns every day. Rather than shutting down or making a face, practice keeping going. “We signal confidence by moving forward and not letting mistakes occupy so much space in our minds.”
Reduce social media consumption: “We’re typically on social media seeing whose life and whose dancing looks better, and start to conclude things about ourselves,” says Skvarla. “But somebody’s success on social media has absolutely nothing to do with you being selected for a summer program.” Set limits on how long you spend on platforms; productivity apps that allow you to block social media for a set time can help.
Try breathwork: Extreme nerves can lead dancers to either hold their breath or breathe very shallowly and quickly—both of which can send the body into panic mode. If you tend to get jittery, practice a slow, controlled breathing technique (like box breathing) to help calm down. Skvarla recommends searching tutorials of different techniques online and choosing one that both physically works for you and is practical to do in an audition setting. Importantly, “you have to practice this in class and rehearsal before your audition,” Skvarla says.

Control the controllables: You can’t control who the school will accept at the end of the audition, so focus on what you can control, says Skvarla. Are you treating any injuries and fueling your body? Are you getting enough sleep and hydrating? Double-checking your dance-bag supplies and giving yourself plenty of time to get to the audition are other ways you can stay on top of things and feel less stressed.
Be practical, though, says Kemp. “If we put a lot of pressure on any one of those elements, as if we have to do it all perfectly or the audition will not be okay, then we’re kind of forgetting how resilient and flexible we are as humans.” It’s normal to sleep a bit less the night before if you’re feeling nervous, for instance. That doesn’t mean your class will automatically be ruined.
On Audition Day
Be mindful of your perspective: “Do you see this as your one chance to prove yourself, or an opportunity to take a master class?” Kemp asks. “You take ballet class all the time; this one just has another exciting element to it.”

Engage in visualization: Imagine yourself in the audition space: “Standing in line and feeling good, walking up to the table and getting your number and receiving it with a smile,” says Kemp. “Then visualize yourself standing at the barre with calm, confident body language, feeling grateful to be there.”
Acknowledge the upside of nerves: “Biologically, it’s adrenaline and cortisol pumping through your system because your body knows that an important event is coming up,” says Kemp. “Those chemicals are meant to give you a short-term boost of energy and an increased focus.”
Exercise empathy: Once you enter the studio, take a few deep breaths to get grounded. Exercise empathy for yourself by first observing facts, says Skvarla: “Things like, ‘Wow, there are a lot of people here,’ or ‘Oh, the barre is in a different place than I expected.’ ” Then think about a similar situation you’ve been in before where you weren’t sure about the outcome, like your first day of school or moving into a new house, but everything turned out okay.
Make a friend: “Actually talk to people, whether in line or as you warm up,” says Kemp. “That can reduce nervousness, because when we feel connected to other people, we feel more comfortable and settled.”
Connect to the present: “If we over-attend to the thoughts in our head and the nervous sensations in our bodies, then we actually aren’t giving a lot of attention to [the class] that’s happening,” says Skvarla. If you’re going down a negative spiral of thoughts or feelings, find a simple sensory-based task like sipping some cold water or re-gripping the barre to snap you back to the present. “What color is the barre under your hand, for instance? Is it round, square, hard?”
Trust yourself: “Prioritize trust above all else,” says Kemp. “Hone into those special qualities you nurtured beforehand, release the attachment to doing everything perfectly, and trust that it will be the best you can do.”