Technique of Prima Ballarina Liudmila Lwona Konowalowa
- Close to your live performance (for me it’s one, two weeks before the premiere), I go into the studio to rehearse.
- Then – when the teacher turns on the music – I start my role.
- I act full of emotions, as if I were live on stage – in a premiere.
- And I look at each wall, and imagine that there are my colleagues, my partners on stage, and my real audience – and say a friendly “hello” to them.
- I start to exercise my emotions but I remember that today the director of the opera is watching the performance, he is sitting in the audience. Then thoughts start coming to my mind: “I am not good enough! Oh my god, I will fail!” (Note: The Aggressive Inner Critic character starts to manipulate.) Then, I counter with strong arguments: “But not only the director is watching! Hundreds of people are watching! The whole audience. They ALL are very important for me. So, I have to STOP IT NOW!”
- Then I concentrate again on my performance – 100 per cent.
As we can see, here Liudmila is not only managing The Bloated Ego character with her disciplined, hard training, she is also managing The Aggressive Inner Critic character, because the “gang” of Emotional Hinderers belong together, they are a family. The only question is: who comes first?
But one doesn’t need to be a ballet dancer to use Liudmila’s technique; everybody can benefit from it, even a salesperson, manager, or CEO.
So, start your own rehearsal at home, in the studio or whichever place suits you. During the Wall Technique, think of all the emotions that could accompany you in your own premiere performance and then talk to them. Manage your own Emotional Hinderers.
This Technique is useful for The Bloated Ego character and The Aggressive Inner Critic character.
Here you can see other techniques.
Here you can read my blog.
Read more about The Concept of The Emotional Hinderers by Judith Hornok here.