01
Uncover
We name what's actually happening: the fear at auditions, the pattern before every premiere, the belief you inherited in your first school and never questioned. It has been invisible to you. That's why it's still running you.
In good company
The dancers Naira coaches perform and train at
First session
These are the things dancers say to me, quietly, when no one else is in the room.
"I nail it every time in rehearsal. Then the curtain goes up and I'm somewhere else."
"I've done forty auditions. I've stopped believing the yes is coming."
"I got the role I wanted and I still felt like I'd got away with something."
"My body is doing everything I ask of it. I'm the one getting in the way."
"I love dancing. I just don't love how I feel while I'm doing it anymore."
Every one of them thought she was the only one. None of them were. And none of them had to stay there.
The method
Uncover, Build, Perform: the three phases every dancer goes through with me.
Not motivation. A structure: the same rigour you bring to class, pointed at what happens between your ears.
02
Build
Then we build the replacement: tools you use on the day. How you warm up your mind, what you do in the wings, how you take a correction without collapsing. Practised until it holds under pressure.
03
Perform
And then you dance. Present, free, recognisably yourself, in the audition room, in the premiere, and in the ordinary Tuesday class where nobody is watching.
Three ways in
Which one are you?
One to one
I'm a dancer and I want to work on this properly
Season and six-month transformational programmes, plus single sessions for members. Structured, private, built around your calendar.
From €1,260 · programmes →
Institutions
I train or employ dancers and I'm responsible for how they cope
Workshops, audition-season intensives and season-long residencies for schools, academies and companies.
From €1,500 · formats & fees →
Start here
I want to start small and see if this is for me
The Dance Mindset Community: monthly live coaching with Naira, a growing training library, and dancers everywhere doing the same work.
$19 / month →
Not sure which door is yours?
Take the Mindset Check.
Six questions about how your mind behaves around dancing, one at a time. At the end you get an honest read and the one place I'd actually start with you.
In their words
What changed, in the dancers' own words.
I want to thank Naira, who helped me find internal confidence and raise my awareness of what I am doing and why I am doing it. The tools I learned from our coaching sessions help me daily. I was able to find my identity as a dancer; it's all about perspective. Since our work started, I feel more aware of my feelings and emotions. I learned to listen to them and, if needed, let them go. I realized what my core values are and that it's all up to me and my mind.
Yvonne Slingerland
★★★★★
I worked with Naira in the lead-up to several performances where I was dancing bigger roles and experiencing lots of worry and self-doubt. Working with her completely shifted how I felt. By asking concise questions, she helps you clarify what you are feeling by tapping into your own resources, knowledge, and capabilities. I owe the success of my performances and the feeling of peace to Naira. Of course, she is also a professional, so she understands all the demands inside out. I can highly recommend Naira to all professionals and dance students.
Noah Dunlop
★★★★★
So grateful and happy I found Naira as my coach. I was looking for one and was about to give up, as the search of finding a person to feel comfortable with became very hard. Already, after a few sessions, I had tools to help me with my daily life. She finds connections that I had never made before. We never dwell in them but rather find ways to turn towards a fullhearted life and dancing. I can always write to her. After our sessions, there is so much happening consciously and unconsciously that I am very excited for all the changes we make and what I can turn my life and career into with her help.
Teele Ude
★★★★★
Before you ask
The questions dancers actually have.
The community is $19 a month and you can cancel any time. Single 1:1 sessions are €195 and are open to community members. The transformational programmes are €1,260 for three months and €2,100 for six, and the six-month programme can be paid in six monthly instalments of €385. There is no hidden tier and no upsell in the session itself.
One 75-minute session roughly every two weeks, plus about ten minutes a day of practice that fits inside your warm-up. Sessions are scheduled around company class, rehearsal and performance blocks. Most dancers meet me before class or on a day off.
No. Coaching is forward-looking performance work: what you want, what's in the way, what you'll do differently on Monday. It is not treatment for an eating disorder, depression, anxiety disorder or trauma. If something in our work belongs with a clinician, I will say so directly and help you find one. Several dancers do both, and that combination works well.
Yes. Nearly all of my coaching is online, with dancers in Europe, the US and Asia across every time zone. Mid-season is often the best time to start, because the pressure you want to work on is actually present. Between sessions you have WhatsApp access for the moments that matter, including audition days.
Yes. A large part of my work is with pre-professional students in vocational schools and academies, and with the dancers doing their first audition rounds. The habits you build now are the ones you'll take into a company, and it is considerably easier to build them than to undo them at twenty-five.
Not from me. Everything in a session is confidential, including from the person paying if that is a parent or an institution. When I work with a school or company, they receive themes and attendance, never anything an individual dancer said.
Dance your best. Feel your best.
A dancing career is short. Don't spend it fighting yourself.
Start with twenty minutes. Tell me where you are, and I will tell you honestly whether this is for you. If two minutes is all you have today, the Mindset Check is further up this page.