- In the Flow: Emotional Awareness for Peak Performance: Stuart Anderson, physiotherapist and performance psychologist, discusses how peak performance is achieved through emotional and mental control, and what kinds of psychological states and skills underlie it.
- Next Steps: Gerhard Maynard, director of programming at Arts Umbrella, guides the participants through a period of reflection on what they've learned during the day and where they want to go next.
- Open Improv with Peter Bingham: Peter Bingham, dancer, choreographer and co-founder of EDAM, leads a workshop on Contract Improvisation. Peter Bingham has been improvising performances for over 30 years.
I was looking forward to the emotional awareness section. After lots of bouts with depression, anger and mood disorders, I had come into the workshop on Emotional Awareness assuming it might be a talk about regulating mood or emotions. I read the fine print and realized the workshop was about emotional awareness for peak performance. This workshop was a valuable way to learn how to keep focus and motivated in order to achieve peak performance and to read one's body cues for signs in order to be aware of how you feel when you are achieving peak performance. Stuart Anderson states that peak performers all share the ability to stay in the moment and focus entirely on the present task, without becoming distracted or allowing emotions to become detrimental to performance. He discusses the 'Flow' model by Csikszentmihalyi. Directly from Stuart Anderson's handout, 'Flow' is the operating mental state of a person who is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, with energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Peak performance is achieved through emotional and mental control.
From the notes, the psychological traits of peak performers are listed as follows:
- High self confidence and expectation of success (not the same as arrogance)
- Self-regulation of arousal / anxiety
- Feeling in control
- Total concentration and focus on the present task
- View difficult situations as challenging and exciting
- Have high standards but are flexible to learn from mistakes
- Positive attitude and thoughts about performance
- Strong determination and commitment
The state of flow happens under very specific conditions. These specific conditions are met when we encounter a challenge that is testing our skills, and our skills and capacities are able to meet that challenge. It is important to have a clear mental picture of what you are striving for. Stuart talks about relaxation, confidence, focus, fun and mental toughness. Some people need to relax more and relaxation can aid a 'trait' anxious person. Imagery is used as a relaxation strategy such as PMR - progressive muscular relaxation. Cue words or images could be used before or during performance to enhance mindset. An example he used was that whenever he said the word "Caramel", he would automatically mellow out and feel more relaxed. Stuart gave pointers for focus: focus on what is in control, have a focus plan for bad and good things, do not focus on outcome but think about the process and learn skill to passively not react. He also talked about confidence. Confidence is achieved through how one thinks, reacts and what one focuses on. You need to make the decision to be confident and sometimes, self-talk (emotional control techniques) enhances task specific performance. Fun is an important aspect as well since enjoyment is incomparable to anything else. He also talks about mental toughness and control as a much needed skill for a peak performer. Mental toughness can be achieved by being determined, confident and feeling in control. One needs to avoid stressors and avoid being emotion-focused. Being able to accept and enjoy stress as part of the gig is an important part of being mentally tough. Self-belief will feed into how well you'll do. If you change your belief, you will change the performance. The 'Flow' model gives an emerging dance professional an idea of what one needs to attain psychologically in order to be a peak performer.
Before the day closed, Gerhard Maynard guided Next Steps, a period of reflection on what was learned during the day. He got the participants to partner up with another person to talk and discuss about what they liked or didn't like about their experience. It was a chance for the participants to mingle and find out from each other how things went from each others' perspectives. He also got everyone to reflect and write some goals down for next steps in their professional development.
At the end of Day 1, I got a chance to see a peak performer, Peter Bingham, at work teaching in an Open Improv workshop with the participants. He was completely focused on the task at hand. Using the floor, his partner and momentum with weight transfer, he showed the basics of Contact Improvisation. I was impressed by the participants in their abilities and openness to try something new and different every step of the way. Contact improvisations needs almost complete trust in your partner and your own ability to keep a flowing conversation with both your mind and body. Conditions seem to work best if one does not fight, force or resist but work in a relationship to have an ongoing flow or interplay between two minds and bodies cooperating together.
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