Their minds just went blank

08.June.07

Being a contestant in a pageant is not the easiest of feats, one has to overcome the fear of speaking in front of thousands, modeling in swim wear, enduring the glare of stage lights and being the butt of crude jokes from hecklers in the audience.{{more}}

All these factors cause nervousness and contestants who are asked what might be considered the simplest questions shock the audience with their inane responses and have the audience wondering, “What were they thinking?”

The ladies in the Miss SVG show were examples of how anxiety caused them to lose valuable points and Coordinator of the pageant Cheryl Rodriquez said that next year more focus would be placed on helping the contestants handle stage fright.

Rodriquez told Searchlight that the contestants received interview training three days a week with educators Muriel Fraser and Lennox John on a wide range of topics to ensure that they could handle the questions but said their anxiety just got the better of them.

She explained, “Their minds just went blank on the stage because when they came back stage they couldn’t believe what they had said. I believe that this indicates that our committee has to do more to help the young ladies overcome stage fright.”

The beauty shows Coordinator said two questions were posed to each contestant; one that was based on the information in their biography and another that was general. She pointed out that keeping up with current events and doing more reading would help future contestants be better rounded so that they could speak comfortably on a wide variety of topics.

She said this love of learning and speaking confidently must be started at an early age and urged parents to encourage their children. Rodriquez also pointed out that too often the society criticizes a youngster when they try to speak and carry themselves well.

“They say that person is “Trying to talk in dicks” and wants to “Play they in things” but what you practice is what you would perfect and we need to see more young people speaking well and carrying themselves better,” she strengthened.

Assessing the pageant, the Coordinator said despite a few hitches, the beauty show was “wonderful” and said that she was especially impressed with the talent but was disappointed with the late start because of the rain.

She congratulated the contestants for being brave enough to participate in the show despite the harsh criticism they faced and said that the focus now would be on preparing newly crowned Miss SVG 2007 Melissa Yorke for the Miss Carival pageant.

Rodriquez explained, “She has a lot of hard work to put in because there would be so many girls coming in from the Caribbean who have the experience of other pageants.

But I am not too worried about Melissa; she is a very confident young lady.”