At Cadenza we frequently meet new clients who are looking for solutions to move confidently and powerfully on stage and on camera. What can you do with your body so you can attune your body to the space you’re presenting in?

How can you reduce wriggling and fidgeting when under performance pressure, especially while presenting or speaking on video! If you’re eager to gain composed confidence and magnetic presence while presenting, this article will get you started.

Why Body Awareness and Regulation is vital for on Stage and Camera Presence

If you’re like most people, knowing what to do with your body on stage and behind the camera lens is a real issue. Today, we’ll work through many exciting strategies to help you with movement control on stage and the camera. You’ll learn top 5 ways you can stop wriggling erratically and include practical suggestions around the face, how attire can help with posture, how to be centred and more symmetrical for your audience, ideas around organising the size of your movements and bespoke suggestions applicable to camera and stage work, so make sure to make yourself comfortable, we have many new ideas to go through to help you out.

This physiological reaction is typical and tends to involve a speeding up of your body. Do you notice similar symptoms when on stage or speaking on camera? Take a moment to note your key observations from past presenting experiences. What are your common stage movement habits that you’d like to gain control over?

Tips to increase your stage and camera body presence and stop wriggling!

#1 The face cues need mastery and control.

We each have various mannerisms and idiosyncrasies that make us who we are and with all due respect this is permissible for daily life, but be mindful that the movements of your face may distract from your message intention. When behind the lens, most speakers are dismayed at what they see because the face moves too much. Showing up with confidence and elegance on the camera and stage, needs to be expressive but an excess amount of movement, especially at the brows and lips can disarm the confidence of your delivery.

Here are few behaviours to watch for:

• Furrowing and raising of the brows
• Racing and darting eye gaze (signalling the flight and fight response)
• Excess head tilting and movement that closes your gaze and facial symmetry

Your audience and viewers judge social information about your personality, temperament and credibility and the face is usually the first indicator of how open, warm and competent you are. Positive and calmly composed facial expressions are the best approach to go for when public speaking, delivering a venture pitch or sharing your expertise behind the lens because they reduce the risk of stress-inducing emotional contagion spilling onto your viewer and disrupting their own comfort levels.

Humans have developed an advanced ability to read the patterns of the face and its signals and for most, the accuracy of understanding these social cues is reliable. For this reason, many of my clients benefit from addressing camera and stage based strategies to build their emotional control and tone of expressions so that their viewer is served with a confident and balanced visual delivery style, thus enhancing and supporting the impact, interest and value of their message.

#2 Use clothing and your attire to assist your posture and movement advantageously.

Over the years, performing onstage as an opera singer, while public speaking and even on camera, I’ve noticed that various attire is more supportive of my composure, stance and visual presentation.

Here are a few bespoke tips that you might like to consider.

Fitted, tailored clothing tends to require our body to position more expansive right angles, especially at the risk zones of our shoulders, hips and legs. You might notice that if you wear a well structured blazer, suit or even turtleneck, your torso has a greater chance of achieving a confident symmetry.

Loose fitted and comfortable attire will not always work well, especially if you have less physical awareness of your postural symmetry. If I’m on stage in a draping gown, I run the risk of following the draping lines of the dress and slumping my carriage and waist. This will not only impact on the vocal power I need for singing clarity but render my physique less elegant, composed and confident for the audience.

The same can be said for the camera. You might have noticed I frequently wear turtlenecks, because they suit me well by providing a clear guide of my desired posture and holding me into position much more effectively. My viewer will also receive a solid block cue of my body, that looks more expansive, thus building credibility, than irregular, allowing the core focus and attention to centre on my face, thus increasing rapport. You might like to consider how you can apply something similar. Turtlenecks are not for everyone and all scenarios but interestingly even Steve Jobs was a great fan of the bottleneck longsleeve, possibly for this very reason in how it drew the focus to his face.

On the Cadenza channel we have more videos and tools on this very topic of posture and stance which you may enjoy. In particular you should check this one:

And you might also find some ideas in our latest bonus resource, The Workwear Whitepaper useful as well, especially in terms of navigating important decisions around what to wear while public speaking or on stage to build gravitas and charisma. 

#3 Centre your centre to add symmetry.

When we centre our posture, we align the eye gaze and face ready for our audience or viewer’s reception. This enables us to close the social distance between our viewers by inviting them into our world, a powerful tool to establish rapport and affinity while on stage or speaking on camera.

The angle and position of our gaze, with eye directed eye contact will directly be like calling your audience members by name, when we meet their eyes (be it through the lens, or gazing in their proximity when public speaking) we increase their participation in our message and by virtue of the increased social attention, also trigger rank and leader cues. Leaders are looked on more by their followers and “Rank relationship between individuals can be revealed by tracking the direction of attention and identifying which individuals become the predominant focus of attention.” sustain gaze (signalling control), whereas followers avert gaze (signalling submissiveness) when responding to other initiated eye contact.

This maintenance of your eye gaze with the camera and crowd is a vital cue for leadership presence (Cheng et al, 2022).

#4 Refine your movement size relevant to the medium and audience.

Speaking on camera and on stage is not like real life.

The view frame is drastically different.

In both cases, it is good to minimise movement while gesture and expression is vital for charisma it should be measured and intentional. Movement for movements sake or in excess will distract your listener and may also transfer the feeling that you are too frenetic and neurotic with your emotions, plummeting your reliability as an expert on the field.

Here are a few practical tips that you might find helpful.

Tips for stage

When on stage, everything is different from the camera and real life face to face conversations.

Did you ever attend a presentation or talk and notice excess wriggling, flapping or pacing in the speaker. Perhaps you found this distracting and disengaging or maybe what appeared to be erratic movement on stage was the quickest indicator that the speaker was highly strung and anxious in front of the crowd.

The skill to move on stage in a way that is composed, without excess wriggling, requires both body regulation in the face of performance pressure and a fine tuned precision to the nature of the space.

The way you present and move your body needs to take into account the nature of the space (whether it is arena, lectern, high stage, barrel stage, or auditorium based). Each venue needs a bespoke approach to how you position your body to achieve a dynamic and engaging view frame for your audience. In some cases, inexperienced or untrained presenters, can overlook this nuance, and as such, despite their best intentions, their body moves in a way that disregards the precise visual set up of the presentation venue and it’s relationship to the audience. Let me elaborate…

A small lecture theatre, boardroom or outdoor amphitheatre require different physical cues so that your:

• Movement size
• Movement speed
• Body angles
• And degree of expansiveness
• Is a symmetrical match to the audience.

Who are some of your favourite presenters? It’s often helpful to watch your favourite speakers and see how they move on stage, but often it takes more than that to master your presence and movement.

At Cadenza, when we work with industry leaders, experts and public speakers to build up elite presenting skills, we workshop a variety of spatial dimensions to ensure that you harness the power of space and your own body’s relationship with it.

Tips for Camera

Movements on the camera need to be smaller and less frequent if you want to build credibility and presence. Excessive hand gestures, pointing and head movement will transfer as erratic and neurotic for your viewer. Before you think that public figures are born with a natural camera presence, think again. The skill of adroit communication must be trained because both the camera and microphone are unforgiving.

We have an expert article and tutorial on this which will provide you with more ideas, specific to media appearances.

I remember my first video recording speaking on camera, years ago, where I struggled to stop moving excessively! . Have you had a similar experience?

#5 Manage Performance Anxiety to move better on stage.

Presenting anxiety is entirely normal whether in front of an audience, in a pressure-cooker meeting, investor pitch, or behind the camera lens.

Freezing up on stage, moving too much or too little, struggling to project your voice tone or feeling out of sync with your audience are just a few of the challenges we can face when public speaking.

You’re not alone.

At Cadenza, we train you in the niche tactics you need to become a vocally influential speaker in a way that accelerates your brand and builds your industry visibility.

Because the last thing you want is to be invited to speak for a huge and unexpected opportunity and not be ready.

All it takes is booking a Cadenza Curiosity call to talk through meaningful solutions for your personal communication needs.

Remember we are Australia based but work globally with clients all over the world, so don’t hesitate to consider our speaking solutions for your big professional and entrepreneurial goals.

References

• Cheng, Joey & Gerpott, Fabiola & Benson, Alex & Bucker, Berno & Foulsham, Tom & Lansu, Tessa & Schülke, Oliver & Tsuchiya, Keiko. (2022). Eye gaze and visual attention as a window into leadership and followership: A review of empirical insights and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly. 101654. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2022.101654.

   

• Girondini, M., Frigione, I., Marra, M., Stefanova, M., Pillan, M., Maravita, A., & Gallace, A. (2024). Decoupling the role of verbal and non-verbal audience behavior on public speaking anxiety in virtual reality using behavioral and psychological measures [Original Research]. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2024.1347102