#75: Stage Presence Is NOT Something You’re Born With: How to Train It and Transform Your Confidence on Stage

Stage presence is not a talent you’re born with—it’s a skill you can train. In this episode of Dance Colleges and Careers, Brittany Noltimier unpacks the myths surrounding stage presence and shows you how to build it with confidence, practice, and strategy.

From being bullied for trying facial expressions, to performing six shows a day at Frontier City, to applying stage presence at the ballet barre in college, Brittany shares her personal journey and practical takeaways that you (or your dancer) can start using immediately.

Whether you’re a student, parent, or teacher, this episode will help you understand why confidence grows through repetition—and why it’s time to stop believing stage presence is “natural.”

www.brittanynoltimier.com/bootcamp

Transcript

Brittany Noltimier (00:00)

I cannot tell you how angry it makes me when I hear adults talking about stage presence like it's a thing you have or you don't. It's like it was something you're born with.

If you've ever said that, I'm here to change your mind today. Hello there and welcome back to Dance Colleges and Careers. I'm your host, Brittany Noltimier and this is the podcast where we talk about all things dance, colleges, careers, and of course, a little bit of competition as well. Today we are talking about stage presence. Is it innate? Is it something we're born with or is it a learned skill?

Stage presence gets roped into this thing that we just say, some people are just good at it. Some people are born with it. Only because we don't have the confidence to figure it out, to do it ourselves. And so we make the excuse, ⁓ they're just born with it. They're just good at it. good at it because we're too afraid to face it

Some dancers look natural on stage, others hide in the back with a fake smile almost plastered on, and it makes you feel uncomfortable. You know that they feel uncomfortable, and you also know that it just hasn't been practiced yet.

But here is the secret.

confidence is not something you're born with it's something you train same thing as stage presence stage presence is resembled in our confidence right because it's like our acting our personality it's what we're able to show to others it's a more vulnerable thing that we have to put out there because we think it's something that we have to understand on our own

Guys, there are systems, there are formulas, there are rules to what our stage presence should be doing. It does not have to make us so afraid like it currently is. Right now, are you afraid to do facial expressions in class? Does it make you feel silly? Does it make you feel like an idiot? Does it make you feel like your friends are going to make fun of you? you haven't learned it the right way yet. You haven't practiced it the right way.

feel so strongly about this because I was bullied in the studio for trying facial expressions. So you know what I did? I stopped. I wouldn't do it. Until other days when I'd be so upset that I'm like, okay, I have to rise above the bullies. I care in here. You guys don't care. It's not cool to be the person who cares. It's not cool to be the person who tries. Otherwise we wouldn't call nerds nerds, right?

Nerds get made fun of because they care, because they try. Teachers' pet gets made fun of because they care, because they try.

Do you want to be the person who cares or do you want to live in mediocrity? So if you for all up until this moment thought that stage presence is something you're born with.

You have to

So now do you understand stage presence is not something we're born with. It's something we train, we practice, and we have to feel silly doing it along the way.

You guys, I want to tell you my story of what changed everything for me

So when I was 19 years old, I got hired at Frontier City in Oklahoma City. And this is my first real professional dance job. And it was a great job. We had the most fun. It was really hard work. we did six shows a day. sometimes seven days a week

My stage presence, I had no idea how much better it grew in that time. But over an entire summer, performing six times a day, from the day we got out of school to coming back to school, I came back to school a totally different person.

when I went back to my audition for Frontier City the next year, I had the confidence. was my stomping grounds. We learned advanced combinations that I kicked butt at. This is not something that I would normally say, but.

I picked it up in a second, not only because I was familiar, but I was, had locked in. I was so comfortable. The confidence was there. My personality, my stage presence was exceptional from the moment I got there because I was comfortable, because I was confident. And Angie Sellers, who is still my mentor, and she really opened up a lot of paths and like amazing opportunities for me as a professional.

So I'm so grateful for her And her mom too, her mom was one of my teachers, one of my professors in college, Pat Oplotnik

I'm so grateful, appreciative for the opportunities she opened up for me.

But the words that she said to me that really changed my life were like, cause we both knew that was a good audition, right? I was on it. Everything was on. And she just was like, Brittany you need to step into every audition like you did today.

That was great advice because yeah, I know I had an excellent audition, but she was right. in this environment, I was comfortable, but I needed to lock into that feeling, that level of confidence, that level of who I am right now and who I want to be. I need to take that with me everywhere I go because that was a winning personality. That was a winning level of confidence

and people are attracted to confidence.

They get drawn in when they feel like they really get to know you, your

when you're genuine, kind, but respectful,

professional but willing to take what they give you with a positive attitude and let them coach you then they're always going to be choosing you putting you in that front center position because if you're giving that today on the day when everybody's really nervous you're going to be giving it tenfold

when it really matters, when the curtains open and when we're on stage.

but then how it changed going into college was I started to understand my ballet teacher, Jo Rowan, and she wanted us to perform at the barre And I still say that to my students now because I understand how much it changed my life. Not only just like, yay, we can dance better, sure, but

Why are we dancing? Because it's fun. Are you having fun at the barre like this? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, if you're like me, I just love to work hard. but we dance because we love music, we love style and expression. And if you learn how to put that style and expression into your ballet barre you know how easy it will be to put it into any routine you put on a stage. It is life-changing. And the confidence I got from performing six times a day at Frontier City,

Then being able to translate that and put it into the ballet bar, it made my teacher really like me because I was taking her feedback. If she said, reach, and it felt so stupidly overdramatic, which it often did,

then she could pull me back. But if she says, reach, and you go, then the teacher moves on to the next because it's like, okay, well, you're not, I'm giving you feedback, you're not willing to take it, why should I waste more breath?

I want to tell you another story from college because it's directly associated. We did ⁓ Holy Night in their Christmas performance. And I remember all the time that we would do pique turn and the arms would go up and she wanted the chin lifted up. And the room would be practicing and people would turn and the chin was here on this level. And now I still think back at it and be like, guys, just lift the chin. This is what she wanted because it was an Holy Night. It was a religious piece.

meant to be performed up to the heavens. Okay, we cannot go here and just give the audience neck to look at because that's not a good picture. But the expression is not outward, it is up and outward to the heavens. That is how we perform to religious pieces. That is how we perform in moments of uplifting and power. That's what she wanted. And I can still hear the frustration

of doing the pique turns and the head staying here. I can still see people's heads here. You know why she liked me? Because my head went up when she told us to. It felt stupid, but it's not always about how it feels. Guys, the teacher knows that this, while it may feel stupid and overdramatic, that that actually looks way better and actually makes sense because we are singing about, holy night, the Christmas song.

if it makes you feel stupid, what do you do? Do you shrivel up inside and continue to let it make you feel stupid? Or do you say, all right, I feel stupid, I'm gonna do it anyways because it's what my teacher asks of me. And then.

you get over it because once you're a little bit more mature, you can go back like I am now 10 years later going, ⁓ that's why she wanted that because I can still see it. This is so flat. This is lifted up to the heavens. It's performing and performing sage presence is not only our face. We think it's our smile, our eyebrows, but it is the entire thoracic area. So if you're performing a piece,

that is uplifting about a higher being and you never look above this level, if you never look above those seats, then your storytelling doesn't make any sense. Then your stage presence is just wrong. And what we do in the Fame Academy is I teach you the system, the formula, the steps, the rules of what our stage presence should be doing. There's an easy rule to follow.

If you're doing an uplifting or spiritual piece, you must be up and extended above the balcony, above the horizon. And that's just a rule

you will not score higher. You will not get a higher rating in your stage presence. You will not feel more comfortable or feel more confident.

and just listen to what our teacher is saying. Smile here, look there. It's not about the vowels, my friends. It has nothing to do with that. That is not stage presence. That's an accent with the face. Sure, we can put one here or on an accent in the music, but that is not your stage presence. If I'm giving you a score on your stage presence, it is not going to be the one vowel face.

it is the overall expression of the entire piece and does it actually match the meaning of the song? in case you still think that stage presence, either you're born with it or you're not, you're wrong. You're wrong. You're not born with stage presence. It is a learned skill.

about just your some of your favorite TikTok influencers? you go back to the very first video they made, it's probably they would probably say it's garbage in comparison to what they do now. Why? Because they practiced it because they see what is working what people like and they got better at it. And as they get better at it, they get more comfortable, more confident and feel less silly.

So remember, stage presence is a learned skill. Second, how do we improve it? With repetition. Repetition builds confidence. So when your teacher says you need to practice it in the studio, what do you think you have to do? You have to start practicing it. That's why I do not just encourage you to practice with your solo. That's why I encourage you to practice in class. Because we spend our whole lives in class

We spend a small fraction of our time working on our solo, working on a specific routine. That's why some people look more natural at their stage presence than others, because they are doing it in class, because they are living it, because they choose to prioritize their stage presence, their personality. They choose to prioritize listening to the music and figuring out how to connect with it more than just the one song they're performing to.

When a song comes on, I feel it and I start to move. I use the groove the music gives me to start to understand how I feel, that feeling I want my audience to feel. If you stand like a stick,

then all of a sudden try to break out into the groove, it doesn't come as naturally.

And finally, fake it until you train it.

I'm not telling you to go out today and all of a sudden know how to perform to all of your songs, but what I am asking you to do is listen to music and start to feel the groove. Move a little bit, don't stand like a stick. you have to start to get out of that habit.

I know that that's like the anxiety of the stage presence starting to rise up. even before, if we wouldn't have thought about it, we would have been here. We would have bobbed to the music and closed our eyes and smiled naturally. Yes. If you're singing a song, if you're singing your favorite Taylor Swift song, your face does what you're singing. You can't sing a happy joyous song with.

a smile on. It doesn't make sense. Your intonation would be off. It's like trying to do a pony, you know, a step ball change, step ball change, a pony step without a smile. It doesn't work. Ponies are a joyful step.

So we need to start kicking out that stage presence anxiety. You know, when the music plays, when we were confident and comfortable a moment ago, but then the music plays and we go, we have to start changing that.

And that anxiety creeps into our routine. So if we're not engaged at all, and then all of a sudden we push play on this song that we put so much pressure on, there's no way that we're going to have the confidence or the facials with that particular song So we need to practice it,

Okay, let's say you go to your jazz warmup. This is your action step, guys. You go to jazz class or if you're going to ballet or your warmup, okay, the very first song that comes on, I challenge you to not have a stone cold face. I guarantee your teacher doesn't have a stone cold face. I guarantee the singer doesn't have a stone cold face. Why? Because a teacher is performing right now. I'm performing for you. I'm not going to be talking to you just like this.

because I'm trying to get through to you as a teacher we are trying to lead by example

So if a song's coming on, they take a nice big breath and lighten up the eyes, do the same. Follow them, follow the rules of stage presence and it gets a whole lot less scary. So anyways, I hope I see you guys in the Fame Academy this year because this is how important it is.

As dancers, we don't have time to let a whole nother year slip on by before we finally start to make a change, So if you're all in, this is what we'll be working on this year inside the Fame Academy and I would love to have you.

happens one time a year, so make sure you don't miss it. you can check it out on my website, www.brittanynoltimier.com/fame That's it. And we're here to make a transformation.

So if you are working on your stage presence, but it's a little scary to do it by yourself, or maybe it's just not locking in, you can find us working on it inside the Fame Academy.

I gave you a lot of tips today, a lot of action steps that you can start to implement. Write them down. Fully commit to trying it today. They're not all gonna feel comfortable. They're not all gonna work for you. But try, try, try. All you can do is try to be better than you were yesterday, than you were before you listened to this podcast. Just try to be brave.

Thanks for being here with me today on Dance Colleges and Careers. I am so excited for this journey you're on. I'm excited for the transformation ahead of you. And until next time, be brave, tell your story, and own the stage.