Fear of Feedback

Receiving critical feedback in any aspect of life is uncomfortable and can at times provoke an emotional response. This is so true for feedback on our art as this is a personal thing we put out into the world. I have clear memories at the start of my burlesque life of avoiding listening to feedback, dreading what people were going to say and feeling like my soul was on show for the world to tear apart. Thankfully, as time has gone on, my opinion on feedback has changed dramatically and a large part of that is thanks for a particular book; 'Radical Candor'.

Now I'm not going to rehash the whole content of this book, i encourage you to read it or watch my youtube video on it.

What i will say though is it helped me reframe how i view critical feedback away from it being a criticism of me and towards it being someone trying to help me. Its very easy to take any sort of constructive feedback personally and assume its coming from a place of wanting to tear you down, especially in an environment that is fuelled by competition historically. However, when the feedback is coming from someone who you trust wants to see you succeed, it becomes a helping hand to get you where you want to be.

As for giving feedback, when i am asked for it I give it from a place of caring and compassion. I want our art form to flourish and that means i want every single performer to reach their potential. If i can, in some small way, help someone achieve that then i consider that a win.

The success of this art form lies in us all lifting each other up and sharing the knowledge and skills we have. A large part of that comes from feedback. So, if feedback scares you in any way, I recommend giving this book a read and seeing if it helps change your mindset towards it. It certainly did for me, and now I seek out feedback regularly from different people, which I feel has benefited me as an artist.

Love

Dinah