Thanks to a Kiama Council Cultural Grant, and the experience and enthusiasm of a new resident, local performing and creative arts practitioners are being given the opportunity to develop confidence in performance and presentation.

Carmel Liertz, who moved to Kiama last year, has an international reputation as a performance coach and researcher on the inter-relationships between stress, health and performance.

“Though we acknowledge that the act of successful performing or presenting is the equivalent of that of an elite athlete for mental, physical, emotional strength, we forget that elite athletes have four people managing their preparation for successful performance – a sport coach, a sport psychologist, a nutritionist, and a physiotherapist,” she says.

“My particular training applies the concept of this holistic mind-body fitness preparation with training for the whole creation to performance process, assisting one to stay focused on each step on the path, and remain ‘in sync’ with oneself and one’s work.”

The book from her original research for her Masters of Education, Performance Confidence – A Training Program for Musicians, is used by professional musician teachers and students at London’s Royal Academy of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, to name but a few worldwide institutions.

“Now I’ve made Kiama my home, I want to share my experience with 20-25 local aspirational performing and creative arts practitioners, who would not normally be able to afford coaching,” she says.

With funding from the Cultural Grant, she has developed Project ‘Ignite’ as a highly subsidized eight session weekly training program. She is looking forward to selecting participants from across cultures and age groups – a mixed group of musicians, theatre performers, authors, poets, and visual artists.

The sessions will use her mind-body strategies framework, with opportunity to develop personalised application.

“It is easy to burn oneself out in the process of preparation, without a personal safeguard of a mind-body, health-oriented structure for daily balance,” she says.

The course will begin in June and be held during the day.

Details: Those interested in being considered for the project should contact Carmel on 0407 301 189 to begin the application process. Find out more about her work at http://www.performanceconfidence.com