A dancer must fight a battle of nerves before stepping on stage.

To win or lose is her choice.

This is my final film for my Master of Arts in Animation at Savannah College of Art and Design.

I was given nine weeks to do the storyboarding, animating, compositing, coloring, editing, and sound design this film required.

I have been dancing for nearly twenty years of my life; half of them spent competing. While each performance required great preparation both physically and aesthetically, the most challenging was that of the mind.

I wanted to create a film that illustrated one of the most nerve-inducing mistakes a dancer could make before competing a number: watching the other dancers.

The dancers used in building the scene of the protagonist shrinking under the weight of her nerves were created by referencing four separate performances in four different styles.

They remain featureless in order to draw the audience’s attention to the main character’s emotion.