i'm still a bit fuzzy on what u mean by being confident sifi

without being completely overwhelmed by fear

is this your definition of confidence? i just call that being normal. with the phrasing you use its almost impossible to argue against your point. obviously being overwhelmed by fear is bad and you want to avoid it. your using confidence as a passive quality when most people look at it as a active quality, aka any degree of heightened(above the baseline) ego. not necessarily cockiness/arrogance.


setting that aside for now and using my definition of confidence(since you mentioned it), i ran into a video today thats sorta related to this topic i think.  http://www.ted.com/talks/thandie_newton_embracing_otherness_embracing_myself.html

instead of watching the whole thing u can just peep 3-6 and 945-1115. basically she talks about how her lack of confidences/self-identity was actually the reason that she was talented at dancing and being an actor(read: dancing). i can relate to what shes saying a lot actually and attribute it to things like my musicality and how its developed way faster than most of you... its because in a way i can consider my self expendable in regards to the song, i'm its bitch :3.. another thing is those 'clean lines' i hear often said about my liquid. they are that way because i'm never satisfied and not confident about how straight they are already, i still work on cleaning them up a ton everyday as if i'm the sloppiest dancer out there. the things that helped me win confluence didnt come from having confidence at all lol.

i'm not saying this slightly neurotic behavior is the ideal way togo about your dance, but it might be a pov you havent considered of since you consider yourself confident and are expressing it as the end all be all of dancing well in front of others. theres other ways to go about it for those who dont have an auto-confidence button sitting on their desk.

DANG I didn't want the thread to be just me rambling on about my own shit.


I was interested in the "logical basis" that seemed necessary for one to be confident.

This is of course in itself a line of logic

   x = reasonable basis for confidence
   y = person
   x + y = confident person

maybe somebody else can come up with a better formula but I think you get the idea?

 
So if

xy = confident person
z = dancing
xy + z = confident dancing

  AND

ab = person lacking confidence
z = dancing
ab + z = dancing lacking confidence


is this of interest?

Great post Bird

I don't think confidence is the be all and end all, just having the ability to do and feel what you know you can do and feel, without being overwhelmed by fear, and not having to compensate with some kind of phony persona. Consequences of giving into fear are an imbalance of things such as rushing, only doing what you know (delving into memory), over-reliance on technique, performing sets etc etc.

Confidence is passive; arrogance is active.