The phrase "awkward performance" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a situation where someone is performing in a way that is uncomfortable or lacking in confidence, often in a public setting.
Example: "The actor's awkward performance during the play left the audience feeling uneasy and unsure of how to react."
Alternatives: "clumsy performance" or "uncomfortable performance".
Judging by Wednesday's awkward performance, it appears all but impossible.
I have yet to meet anyone who hadn't been shocked by Henry's desperately awkward performance.
His detractors claimed his awkward performance and lack of specific answers explained why he preferred to avoid the media.
Once again, with the onus on him to create chances, Cesc Fabregas put in an awkward performance.
Bopping up and down, Alex gave the most physically awkward performance of the night.
It's an afternoon in late February, and Soltysik, the presidential nominee for the Socialist Party USA, is leaning over his laptop in the living room of his cramped, cat-dominated Los Angeles apartment, showing me a YouTube video of a legendarily awkward performance by a seemingly deranged Chicago pop singer named Bobby Conn.
More revealing than these awkward performances was the simple sight of the men, together in the seat of power.
Shearman and Pearson felt that the episode's lack of complexity was refreshing, but ultimately the "awkward" performances and "cheesy" approach to its subject matter detracted from it.
Both works are packed with ham, full of the kind of deliciously jilted, awkward performances that tend to inspire the respect of bad movie hounds and widespread ridicule in equal measure.
Cage thoroughly disapproved of this awkward, nervy performance – but Bernstein's painfully patient and articulate introductory speech is all the more remarkable when you consider that his own stylistic sympathies lay firmly somewhere between bar lines and key signatures.
But if his costume was slightly awkward, his performance was adept and assured, with a warm and full tone in the Piper's Song and impressively nimble playing in the quicker passages.
