Let's start with a follow-along: raise both
eyebrows, drop your left; now drop the right; raise the left; raise the right; drop
both; open your mouth, show your teeth, clench your teeth, add one brow; reset.
Give me a stank face, a confused face, an annoyed face.
Do you feel the difference between each face? [Music] At STEEZY, we believe that whether you are a
beginner or advanced, an expressive or reserved dancer, being a great performer isn't exclusive
to any one type of personality or skill level. So, after you watch this video, you should take
my beginner and advanced dance classes on STEEZY Studio I made specifically to help you
grow in your performance capabilities. Because while techniques and foundations are crucial,
like the ones we talked about in this video, Texture is the physical representation
of the way a move feels to the eye. Strong performance is what truly takes a
dancer to the next level. In this video, we're going to focus on facial performance
or "facials" cuz it's often something you're expected to figure out on your own. For some, it
comes naturally, but for most, we gotta practice. I'm going to skip over the obvious yet important
fact that confidence matters; you know that. Let's get into the specifics. Firstly, breath
control is a game changer. Let me explain: Facial expressions are primarily responses to
emotions, and when we dance, we need to mimic those feelings closely. Using breath is one of
the best ways to emulate emotional tendencies; it's a tool to put your body into that state of
mind you're acting. For example, if I'm going to do a dance and the music and the movements are
heartbroken and deeply sad, you're going to want to match your breathing to that emotion. What does
it feel like to be in that mental state? I'm going to do a simple movement and emotion, and I want
you to try that move and the breathing pattern with me. Remember, you're sad, so let's get into
that mental state. Follow along: your inhales are deep like you're gasping for air, and your
exhale is shuttered. I know it feels pretty silly, but trust me and try a few more breathing
patterns. Okay, your character is cocky; you feel way cooler and better than everyone else
around you, so much so that you're disgusted with everybody else. Lay your cocky facial foundation
by getting into that cocky mental state. Give me some eyebrow like "ew," a bit of nose scrunching,
lightly open mouth. Now, your breath: use a calm, unfazed inhale, not too deep, and then a sharp,
sharp exhale like you're scoffing. Nice, let's do another. You're letting out your rage; you feel
powerful. Make a face like you're about to scream. Take a deep inhale, and if you can scream, but if
that would be too loud, release a light hiss while your mouth is open in a screaming position. These
emotions and characters, complimented by honest and realistic breathing patterns, help you create
authentic facial performances while dancing. The next tip to improving facial performance
is understanding resistance and strain. Not everything about facials has to do
with our emotion; often our expression, breath, and posture change as a reaction to
bodily strain. When we are lifting, pushing, or pulling something really heavy or moving
through something that is really frictioning, what does your face do? When we utilize textures
in dance, we are pretending to feel something. For example, if we were to texturize this movement and
pretend like we're moving through plastic wrap, our face should reflect the effort
needed to push through that resistant, stretchy material. Remember, we're acting; we
want the audience to believe that we're moving through something even though they can't see
it. Let's do a move where you're acting like you're lifting and throwing a 50 lb weight; you'll
probably get a little double chinny, bunched-up face with a hard push of your breath. What if
the move that you were doing had zero resistance, like you're in space? Probably like you're barely
putting any effort; your breath is normal, and imagine putting intense facials on this. It just
doesn't make as much sense, and it's inauthentic to the reality of the movement. As dancers,
we are storytellers, artists, vibe setters, but dance is not all about replicating reality.
Even if realistic breathing patterns and imitating strain do help us convey relatable human
emotions, the reality is that in any art, rules are meant to be broken and bent. What? Just
because this move is intense, my face has to be intense? No. What matters most is that you're
able to convey your intention and story through your movements and expressions. A single move can
be done in an infinite amount of ways, and that means that your expressions can be expressed or
not expressed in order to further a story. Humans are complex, and that means that you can use those
complexities to bring depth to your performances. Okay, before we wrap this up, here's some
extra rapid-fire tips to improve your facials: Where your eyes are directed matters. Want to
project to a big group? Look right above the audience on the horizon. Want to connect with a
single person? Look at them in the eyes directly or at a certain body part. Want to make the
audience feel like they're a part of your world? Look around at the invisible environment
only you can see but they can't. What you wear changes your facial performance from the way
clothes make you feel all the way to makeup, which literally changes the way that your face
looks. You can use a variety of external mediums to enhance and adjust your facial performance.
Find what works best for you and your goals for each performance situation. What looks good
and what feels good are different. Many of your positions and expressions are not going
to feel natural, and that's okay. Try using a mirror or recording yourself when practicing,
and consistently choose to be okay with feeling whack or even a little silly. When you can face
yourself like that, you will grow into a much more experienced performer. Experiment and have
fun. Not everybody expresses emotions in the same way. There may be certain moods or vibes that
resonate with you more than others. Find what your favorite and most natural facials are, or
be a chameleon and try to become a master of all. If you're ready to put what
we learned into training, click the link in the description to take my
Performance Focus classes on STEEZY Studio, along with many other recommended lessons.
I'm Danyel Moulton. Thanks for watching.
