What is self-esteem? At its very essence, self-esteem is how you regard yourself. Self-esteem and self-confidence are often confused. Everyone has a concept of who they are, or a self-concept. When you like your self-concept (who you think you are), you have high self-esteem. Self-confidence, on the other hand, is the belief in your ability to perform a task—it is not a judgment. You can have self-confidence, but not self-esteem, and vice-versa. Optimally, you want both—self-confidence in your abilities and high self-esteem.

Many athletes and performers often wrongly determine their self-worth by how successful they feel about their dancing or competitions. When they dance well or feel successful, they feel good. But the opposite is also true: despair and low self-esteem result when their performance is off.

Competitive dancers are especially vulnerable to the problem of attaching self-esteem to performance. Judges and coaches focus on how you look and how well you perform. Society sends subtle signals that you must be the best or achieve the most to feel worthy as a person. Likewise, most dancers are perfectionists, which results in high expectations and self-criticism.

If you fall into this trap, your emotions are heavily influenced by the perception of your performance, which naturally varies from day to day. One day your self-esteem is strong and everything is as it should be. The next day, your self-esteem is gone due to a poor performance or practice. Dancers and performers often think in black and white: "Even when I feel good about my performance, if my scores aren't what I want or the audience reaction isn't what I expected, I feel like a failure." This statement highlights how out of control we can feel about success or failure in dance.

Following are some guidelines that may help you work on your self-esteem issues:

• Stop Comparing
  You do yourself harm by comparing yourself to other dancers. Comparisons only hurt your self-esteem and self-confidence because you can fall into the black-and-white trap. Everyone is unique. Think about how well you did compared to your last performance instead of making comparisons to others.
• Be the Role
  When you are dancing, you are playing a role. You should strive to be fully in that role when practicing and performing, but when you leave the studio or stage, it’s time to switch roles into other parts of your life and let go of judgments. Don’t superimpose the role of a dancer (or how well you can perform) into other areas of your life.
• True Friends
  True friends and family members love you for who you are as a person, not for how well you dance. They don’t judge you based on your performance or change their view of you because of what you achieve.
• Accept Your Body Image
  Many dancers worry about their body not being the perfect type. No one can be perfect or have the ideal "look." Some of us are born with more eye-hand coordination, stamina, or balance—and that’s what makes us unique. Accepting your body image is the first step to raising your self-esteem. Make the best of what you have by focusing on your strengths and capabilities as a dancer!
• Create Balance in Your Life
  If your life is dance, you are at greater risk for self-esteem problems because you have "all your eggs in one basket" and can’t separate the different roles in your life. Strive to find a balance in your life with your family, school, dance, friends, and other career aspirations. This will help take the pressure off your dancing and allow your self-esteem to grow.
• Be Your Own Best Coach
  You are your own worst critic and your best friend wrapped into one. We are often harder on ourselves than we are on our best friends. What would you say to a best friend that is feeling down? Can you be at least that supportive of yourself? Always give yourself words of encouragement and reward after a performance or practice. Pretend you have the most positive coach on your shoulder spurring you on.
• Define Your Self-Concept Outside of Dance
  It is important to define who you are outside your dance career. Make a list of your positive characteristics and review them every day. Use only descriptions that of characteristics or traits that you bring to every aspect of your life. Do you like what you see? If so, you have self-esteem. Is there something you don’t like? If so, work to change that aspect of you.