Mind your body: meditation: how stillness improves performance skills.

It's time for your entrance. Your mind (not to mention your heart) is racing. You're worried about your props, hoping your costume won't malfunction, and you're desperately trying to remember that chunk of last-second choreography. But there's a way to calm preshow jitters and monkey-minded brain antics: Learn the art of meditation.

Meditation allows the mind to become calm and focused. It produces physical relaxation and states of grace that enhance performance skills. Though ritual meditation is part of several major religions, it doesn't have to be a religious activity. Dance Magazine spoke to three dancers about the benefits of their practice.

Meredith Monk, the composer/choreographer who earned a Dance Magazine Award in 1992, began practicing Shambhala Buddhist meditation (a Tibetan form) in 1985. She was introduced to the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the mid-'70s while teaching at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. During a period of personal turmoil, she turned to his book, Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior. "Circumstances in my life made me realize that I needed to get space and silence," she says.

At Naropa, Monk discovered that many of the core values of her work were naturally akin to Buddhist teachings. But in relation to her rehearsal process, Monk says, "I made a lot of changes. I was able to see clearly that fear is something we all have in common, and it creates a lot of conflict and anxiety."

Monk felt she needed to develop patience, respect, and compassion towards the people she worked with. "Being onstage as a performer wasn't hard for me," she says. "I was quick and energetic in that way. I had a harder time being compassionate about the fear people had. When I experienced stage fright for the first time in the early '90s, I had a great opportunity to learn about that compassion, for others and myself."

Sita Mani is originally from Mumbai, India. Ironically, she didn't find meditation until she came to the West in 1990. A former dancer with New York's Sanza Nemo Collective, Mani now choreographs her own work and teaches beginner meditation. Like many dancers, she's always been curious about the mind/body connection.

Mani practices with Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. "Meditation has allowed me to notice the huge amount of mental activity that gets in the way of what can be achieved with the body," she says. This awareness has given her the ability to communicate more as a performer. Mani says meditation "opens up a channel for creativity to come out."

"Mindful breathing helps cultivate awareness and concentration, or one-pointedness," says Mani. "Observe and count your breath, and when you notice your mind drifting towards what you're going to have for dinner, bring your thoughts back to the breath." If sitting cramps your style, you can devise moving meditations, she says.

Katricia Eaglin of Dallas Black Dance Theatre is a Christian, but she wouldn't call her form of meditation prayer. "I meditate on the task at hand, and think about what I can do to accomplish it," she says.

Eaglin performs her daily c devotion during her lunch break. She thinks about what happened during class and any new choreography she's learned. "I meditate on positive scripture," she says. "Meditation changes my perspective, whether or not the situation has changed."

Before performances Eaglin tries to find time away from the chatter, because she wants to maintain her positive outlook. So she may take her ritual into the bathroom. "People ask me, what were you doing in there?" Or, Eaglin finds a secluded park or other scenic locale to sit in, and if the spirit moves her, she'll walk around too.

When on tour, she stays focused by organizing her makeup and clothes in her hotel room and meditates for a good performance. One of her keys to serenity is reading the "noise" chapter in Daniel Nagrin's book, Hove to Dance Forever. "It talks about how dancers stop themselves with negative chatter," she says, "when they should be engulfing themselves in the task."

Nancy Alfaro, a former dancer, lives in Queens, New York.