The fear of dancing in the presence of others, sometimes called chorophobia is something that most people find difficult to discuss and this makes it almost impossible to solve. This gets much more complex in the context of church services especially for devout Christians who have read about David praising the Lord with dancing and they really wish to emulate him, but just feel held back by this embarrassing and seemingly insurmountable problem. Well, here are the best and most practicable ways to pull yourself out and get you dancing without a care in the world.
1. Remember it’s not about you, it’s about God
One huge mistake you can make as someone who feels shy about dancing in the presence of other people, and in this case, in church programs is to focus too much on yourself, how you would look to others, how not to feel embarrassed and more, but the easiest way out is to change that mindset. Your dancing should be a way of praising God, just like king David did. David was not concerned about what his dancing moves would make him look like in the presence of others. So simply concentrate on the fact that you are in church to praise the creator and that takes the pressure off. As a somewhat shy dancer myself, a very empowering verse I have discovered and use regularly is Psalm 115:1 “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory…”
2. Don’t think about other people’s opinions
Another serious pitfall for people is that they focus way too much on the opinions of others. They think about who is looking at them and what they might think if their dance moves are lame. This fear of ridicule is so great that they simply prefer not to join the others in the praise session. Awfully enough, this decision only makes things much worse as their refusal to participate only makes them stand out as the odd ones in the congregation and they end up with the attention they so much strove to avoid. So the best thing to do is to simply disregard the opinions of others and just go for it.
3. Sit in the front pew
This is counterintuitive, but it does work excellently. Believe it or not, one of the reasons some people can’t get over their fear of dancing in the congregation is because they can see how wonderfully some other church members are dancing and this intimidates them and they simply give up on the whole thing. They are unconsciously comparing their own dance moves, which by the way they think isn’t all that great with the awesome dance moves of these other people and they simply think it’s not worth it at all. Since this is the root of their problem, the way out is to simply sit in front of other people and combine this step with steps 1 and 2 to get a perfect result. In doing this, they end up not caring about what people would say and they are focused on praising God and most importantly, they are not being intimidated by other people. This also has a secondary effect in that it starts to build their self-confidence and mitigate that fear of dancing really quickly, such that after practicing this step for a while, they can start sitting anywhere in the church and not care about someone else’s moves. It is all about practice.
4. Sing along and smile all through the praise session
Another interesting observation about people who are scared to dance in front of others is that they hardly sing along with the song being played or performed. They get so absorbed in trying to manage the embarrassment of being caught up in that uncomfortable situation and silently pray that the session ends quickly. In fact, the one thing you can do to get rid of this hopeless feeling is to simply join in. Sing along and smile all the way through. You might be surprised that you might start feeling excited about the song in just a short time and actually start enjoying it.
5. Don’t judge yourself
However the dance session turns out in your evaluation, don’t judge yourself. In all likelihood, you actually performed better than you feel. Do not dwell on it, simply prepare to do better next time, never forgetting to implement all the preceding steps.
6. Learn new dance moves in your free time
Finally it is very important to learn new dance moves to supplement what you have at the moment. This is because whatever you will be doing out there or in the praise session will come mostly from the variations and combinations of moves you have learnt over the years. You don’t need to think about the context in which you might need them. Your body will surely bring out the best moves for the right occasion.
