Don't think, just dance? The role of attentional focus in performance anxiety
If someone had told me two years ago that I’d spend most of Spring 2024 interviewing sweaty, brilliant, stressed-out dance students about how they stay calm under pressure, I’d have smiled and said, “Sounds like a dream.” That dream turned into a full-blown research study - one that forms the first study of my PhD and took shape slowly, layer by layer, from an early idea to a finished journal manuscript submitted for publication in April 2025. This post is a look behind the scenes at how that process unfolded and what I learned along the way.
Where it all started
The idea came to me during a conversation with a dance teacher friend who casually mentioned how much students freeze up during live performances - despite looking confident in rehearsals. “They just overthink it sometimes,” she said. That phrase stuck with me.
I’ve long been interested in performance under pressure, especially how our attention shapes our actions. In sport and performance psychology, there’s a fascinating body of work on attentional focus: whether people perform better when they concentrate on the effect of a movement (external focus), versus when they focus on their own body (internal focus). I started to wonder: What role does that kind of focus play in dance? Could it help explain why dancers sometimes crumble in performance despite being technically excellent?
So the seed was planted: a study on attentional focus, coping strategies, and performance anxiety in pre-professional dance students.
Planning the study
I decided to approach the study using mixed methods - quantitative surveys to get patterns and statistical relationships, and qualitative interviews to understand the lived experiences behind the numbers. I wanted to know:
How do dancers cope with performance anxiety?
What kind of attentional focus do they use (internal or external)?
Do teachers influence these preferences?
And, crucially, does any of this actually relate to how anxious dancers feel before performing?
After drafting the ethics proposal and fine-tuning my survey, I reached out to several dance training institutions across the UK. Some were immediately enthusiastic, others needed some persuading. I eventually secured six institutions, and over the following months, 29 students and 8 teachers generously gave their time to contribute to the study.
Collecting the data
The data collection phase was intense but deeply rewarding. I used validated questionnaires to assess dancers’ performance anxiety and coping skills, and asked specific questions about their use of attentional focus - whether they think more about technique (internal) or the effect of their movement (external) during class versus on stage.
What really brought the project to life were the semi-structured interviews. These took place in studios, empty classrooms, and over Teams. Sitting across from a young dancer in warm-up gear, or a seasoned teacher with 30 years of experience, I heard raw, honest stories about what it feels like to perform under pressure. The interviews lasted anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour.
One student told me:
“I prefer an external focus while performing on stage, it helps me connect with the audience and not obsess over technique.”
Others shared how they learned coping strategies not from formal training, but from trial-and-error, peers, or even YouTube videos. Many teachers acknowledged that while they do mention focus and mindset in class, these topics often fall by the wayside.
That gap between practice and theory became a theme I couldn’t ignore.
Analysing the findings
Once I’d transcribed the interviews and cleaned the survey data, the real challenge began: making sense of it all.
Statistically, we found that students who reported strong coping skills had significantly lower performance anxiety - no surprise there, but always satisfying when a hypothesis is confirmed! More intriguingly, attentional focus seemed to moderate the relationship between coping skills and concentration disruption, a key dimension of performance anxiety. Students who focused internally while performing - about 28% of the group - showed higher levels of concentration disruption. Meanwhile, those using an external focus - thinking about projecting energy outward or connecting with the audience - felt more composed and less distracted.
This resonated with the qualitative data, too. Many students told me that while teachers encouraged internal focus during technique class (“Engage your core!” “Think about your turnout!”), they often shifted toward an external focus when preparing for stage work. Some students made this transition easily; others didn’t.
One teacher put it perfectly:
“Some students will really respond to internal focus, but others just go, ‘whatever, I need to perform.’ And that’s fine - it’s about figuring out what works.”
Writing it up
I won’t lie, writing the paper took longer than I expected. Balancing academic language with the vivid voices of my participants was tricky, especially since I wanted the real people behind the data to shine through. The paper went through multiple drafts, lots of back-and-forth with collaborators, and a few late nights staring at confusing SPSS outputs.
Eventually, I found the narrative:
The study confirms that coping strategies reduce performance anxiety
Attentional focus - particularly external focus - can influence how dancers experience and manage performance anxiety
A sizeable number of dancers don’t receive explicit instruction on attentional focus or coping strategies
There’s a clear opportunity for dance training programmes to integrate these skills into their curriculum
I submitted the manuscript in April 2025, along with an infographic I created for a competition to help communicate the findings more visually. Designing that graphic was a surprisingly fun way to synthesise the research.
Reflections
Looking back, I think this part of the PhD project highlighted something I’ve always felt instinctively as a researcher and educator: technique alone isn’t enough. Whether it’s sport, music, or dance, how we think during performance - and how we’re supported in managing pressure - shapes outcomes just as much as physical skill.
What surprised me was how much students already knew about what works for them. Many had developed their own strategies, often without formal guidance. This speaks to the need for more dance psychology education in training programmes, not just to optimise performance, but to support wellbeing.
It also made me more aware of the power dynamics between student and teacher. While many teachers were supportive and open to new ideas, students sometimes felt pressure to conform to ways of thinking or working that didn’t suit them. Creating space for conversations around mental preparation and attentional strategies could shift that.
What’s next?
This isn’t the end of the story. I’m building on this research via the next study of my PhD. This will be a larger-scale survey, based on the data collected in this study. For now, I’m proud of this small but meaningful contribution to the field, and deeply grateful to the dancers and teachers who shared their stories with me.
If you're a dance educator, performer, or just someone fascinated by how people thrive under pressure, I hope this study offers a few sparks of insight. And if you want to talk research, attentional focus, or anything dance-related, my inbox is open.
Thanks for reading!
