Apr 1 / Michelle Loucadoux

3 Big Classroom Confidence Killers and How to Combat Them

Do you ever feel like your confidence takes a vacation right before a class or audition? Or how about when you’re about to go onstage? Do you wonder if it’s even possible that you will be able to perform? Well, first of all, you’re not alone. Many dancers can struggle with their self-confidence. 

Confidence is an important skill to have in dance. “Skill” is the operative word here though. Confidence isn’t something you’re necessarily born with. It can change based on the situation you’re in. In short, confidence is something that can be learned.

You might be very confident in a ballet class, but if you were to take a waacking class, you might be a little more hesitant. Why? Because if you’re more comfortable in ballet, you have probably practiced it more than waacking. The great news is, if you’re not confident in a situation, you can shift that. You can build your confidence. 

Here are three big classroom confidence killers and a few tips on how you can combat them. 

1. Your goal is out of your control

Do you ever go into an audition with the goal of getting the job? Or how about going into a class wanting to be “called out” by your teacher? How about going to competition and only wanting the highest score? While these types of motivations might seem appropriate for the situations, there is one fatal flaw they share. 

None of them are under your control. 

Dancers have very little control over whether they get a job or not. You can do your best, but you can’t make someone hire you, you can’t make a teacher recognize you in class, and ever how prepared you might be, you don’t know if someone will score higher than you in competition. 

When you don’t have control over your own success or failure, do you know what can happen? Your confidence can wane. Confidence is built upon our own belief in ourselves that we are capable, resilient, and under control. 

Research shows that more autonomous (internally-driven) motivation is associated with stronger psychological functioning and well-being, both of which support more stable confidence over time. In other words, when we focus on internal rewards that we can control (like doing our best or showing up prepared) rather than extrinsic motivation (like getting the job or garnering a teacher's attention), it can make us feel better about ourselves and our work.

What to do instead: 
What if we chose to shift our motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic? What if we chose to focus on something we can control? 

Instead of heading into, say, a competition thinking that it’s “platinum or bust”, you could simply set a goal that you’re going to try to be as connected as possible on stage with your fellow dancers. Now, that is something (awesome) you can control. And every time you set a goal that is within your power and you accomplish it, you put another rhinestone onto your glowing crown of self-confidence.

2. You have biased expectations

The Centre for Clinical Interventions says, “Biased expectations are negative thoughts that commonly occur when you encounter an ‘at-risk-situation.’” If you are about to go into a dance class and you think you aren’t going to do a good job remembering the combination, you might just have a biased expectation. 

When we create our own biased expectations, we overestimate the likelihood that something bad is going to happen. This can sometimes lead us to make decisions based on incorrect information. What if you just decided not to go to that dance class because you are sure that you’ll mess up? Then, you might not improve over time and your future as a dancer could be impacted.


What to do instead:

One of the healthiest things we can do when we encounter a biased expectation is to challenge it. For instance, are you 100% sure that you will forget the combination in dance class? Or is there the possibility that you might not? If you are sure that you won’t do a good job, what is your evidence for that belief? What are other outcomes for that situation? Is there, perhaps, a more realistic expectation? 

When we face challenges with a negative and biased expectation, sometimes our negativity can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The next time you encounter a biased expectation, take a few minutes to go through the questions in the previous paragraph and try to create a more realistic (and hopefully positive) expectation.

3. You haven't done the work

Real talk, dancers. We are often less confident when we haven’t done enough preparation. Have you ever taken a test that you didn’t study for? Were you more or less confident than the tests you did study for? The answer is obvious, right? Preparation is not only good for the outcomes of your endeavors, it’s also good for helping you calmly approach them. Preparation can decrease performance-based anxiety and it can make you feel better about going into at-risk situations. 


Dancers are often pegged as high achievers in most aspects of their lives, but preparation doesn’t always just mean that you’ve done your homework. Sometimes preparation means mentally preparing yourself for a situation as well. Have you thought of what you will do if something goes wrong? If you drop a prop onstage, do you plan to pick it up or leave it on the floor? What if you get on set for a music video and they ask you do improv? 

The more you mentally prepare for the unexpected, the more confident you will be that you can handle any situation that may come your way. 

What to do instead:
So, the next time you’re not feeling confident about a situation, take some time to mentally prepare. Go through possible scenarios and decide ahead of time how you might handle them. Do your research on what you can expect in the upcoming situation. And remember that the more prepared you are, the more confident you will become.
It’s okay to not be confident all the time. Nobody’s perfect (and too much confidence can also hinder your learning). But, if you want to approach the situations in your life with a little more gusto, try investigating your motivation, challenging your biased expectations, and making sure you do the emotional and physical work ahead of time. Remember – you can build confidence. And the more confident you are, the more you will be able to enjoy your dancing adventures.

References

Centre for Clinical Interventions. (2005, July). Improving self‑esteem: Module 4 — Biased expectations. https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/CCI/Consumer-Modules/Improving-Self-Esteem/Improving-Self-Esteem---04---Biased-Expectations.pdf

Maclellan, E. (2025). Developing traits of self‑confidence and intrinsic motivation in physical education. Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12649339/

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self‑determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860

Wilson, R. C., Sullivan, P. J., Myers, N. D., & Feltz, D. L. (2004). Sources of sport confidence of master athletes. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 26(3), 369–384.

Yiming, Y., Shi, B., Kayani, S., & Biasutti, M. (2024). Examining the relationship between self-efficacy, career development, and subjective wellbeing in physical education students. Scientific Reports, 14, 8551. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-59238-6

Michelle Loucadoux, co-founder Danscend

Michelle Loucadoux (Fraser) is a former professional dancer turned educator and one of the co-founders of Danscend. She is one of the co-chairs of the dance division at AMDA college is Los Angeles and travels the world speaking to dancers and dance educators about the importance of dancer mental health awareness.