When one player went into a room, everyone would quiet down and listen for their mistakes, making comments to each other about what they're messing up. But when the person came out of the audition, everyone would smile, congratulate them, and comment on how wonderful they sounded.
The pressure from my peers to do well was exhausting because it was so poorly veiled. I felt like I couldn't count on any one of them for support because they were only looking out for themselves to do well. This type of competition to be the best can be applied to so many circumstances - applying for college, a job, anything.
But why do we want to bring our competitors down so much? Why do we focus on their flaws? It doesn't make ours any better. Instead of bringing down our competitors shouldn't we first focus on our own performance?
I have found that this competitive and almost hostile environment is no different in the world of dance. At dance auditions people also watch you waiting for you to mess up and the moment you finish they applaud and smile and say good job. What I have found though, is that the people who are most guilty of this are the people who are not very good. It seems to me that it's a way for them to boost their self esteem and lack of confidence about their own abilities by tearing down other competitors who they fear might win the audition over them.
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow "thespian" (lawlz) I totally agree with you! The more people at an audition, the more nervous become. I totally have my ear trained to listen for mistakes. How awful. Your post actually made me realize that I do this. Maybe we look for mistakes in others to make ourselves feel superior, feel better? Probably. I agree with Naomi. It's a self esteem and confidence issue. I also believe that we bring our competitors down because we really want that part or that dance solo. There's a level of self consciousness, but also a level of passion as well.
ReplyDeleteWhile I neither dance nor play an instrument, I row. That's an incredibly competitive sport, even between rowers on a team. When you make the rowing team, that's just the start. Then you have to beat out all the other people on the team to make sure you're on the top spot. Some people have gone so far as to lie about their scores on the erg (the rowing machine that measures how fast/strong you are) so that when their teammate ergs they won't be able to know what score to beat. Isn't it the American way to always win though? We have to be the best always! I talked about this in my post "We all aspire" that was inspired by the Samsung phone commercial.
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