Yes, it can definitely go away! I'm proof of that. And what helps it is just a little technique that anyone can learn.

The stage terror goes away if you recognize it for what it actually is - your desire to do well, your extra energy because it's a live show, all bundled up inside you because you haven't moved the energy where it belongs - the performance.

If you get butterflies or shaky legs and hands (and especially if you get cold and shaky and your friends tell you that you didn't look nervous! (Grrrr, I hated that!)), then just take a few deep breaths, take the energy that is stuck and move it around in your body for a while before going on stage. Just circle it around, so that it is moving, and doesn't get stuck.

Then recognize that what you thought was terror was actually the extra energy that you have been given for the performance. That same energy is the reason why live performance can be so much better than recorded performance - excitement. Passion. Blowin' them away with sheer force of energy. That's what it's given to you for.

If you're not used to paying attention to your energy normally, then the extra that you get before a performance can really throw you for a loop, and then it gets stuck, and you mistake it for terror, which becomes a vicious circle. So just move the energy around, to keep it doing *something* while you're waiting for the show to start.

Once the show starts, move the energy through your hands and your voice, into the performance, and into the audience, right to the back of the room. There's enough energy to do that, that's what it's for. (When you get better at dealing with the energy, let a teensy bit out as you move onstage, for a great entrance.)

And you know what else? It's the people who get that energy that make the *best* live performers!!!