Breathing Techniques

The quality of your breath is an indicator of the quality of your health. Oxygen allows the cells in the body to release their stored energy, which keeps the body moving and working. Improper breathing can contribute to increased tension in the upper back and neck area, as well decreased lung capacity. For dancers, efficient breathing patterns are especially important in order to decrease muscle fatigue and sustain better endurance.

Our body acts like a pump, moving air in and out of the lungs. The torso and pelvis can be thought of as two compartments separated by the diaphragm, which serves as the floor of the thoracic compartment and the ceiling of the abdominal compartment. The base of the lungs attaches to the diaphragm and, during an inhalation, will lower the floor of the upper compartment while the muscles of the ribcage allow air to fill the lungs. (See illustrations on the opposite page.) On the exhalation, the abdominal muscles contract and the diaphragm moves back up while the ribs gently drop downward, sending breath out of the body. As the diaphragm moves downward it creates gentle pressure on the abdomen. This is why after eating a large meal you feel as though you can’t take a deep breath.

Lie on your back with one hand resting gently on your ribcage and one hand on your belly. As you breathe, notice which hand moves first or farther. Do both hands move equally? Keeping your hands resting on your ribcage and belly, imagine blowing up a balloon inside your ribcage as you inhale. All sides of the balloon should expand and contract simultaneously. If only one hand moves, it is a sign that your lungs are not fully expanding and that tension is being held in the other area. If only your upper hand moves, you might be tightening the abdominal muscles and not allowing the diaphragm to move easily. If only your lower hand moves, you might be holding tension in the upper body, which also influences the freedom of the diaphragm.

Experiment with keeping the ribs motionless and only breathing in your belly and notice how you feel. Now try keeping the abdominals flat and engaged and again note your body’s response. When you restrict movement in either area, you will feel muscular tension and a decreased ability to take a deep breath—which is not desirable. When all parts of the ribcage can move easily and together it won’t appear as if the chest is lifting much at all.

When the body is at rest, you want to breathe evenly, with the chest and the abdominal area moving equally and at the same time. Focus on the image of the torso and the abdominal region moving simultaneously as you inhale and exhale like a balloon. Do you feel all sides of your ribcage and abdominal area gently moving and expanding? You are on your way to breathing more efficiently.

When under stress, dancers may breathe shallowly or even hold their breath. This stress signal­ will increase heart rate, blood pressure and tension in the muscles. At those times, a slow cleansing breath will go a long way to bringing the body back to optimal functioning. As choreography becomes more athletic, dancers will need to add cardiovascular training to ensure that their lungs keep up with the demands on their bodies. When you are working aerobically, your ribs will lift more to increase your lung capacity to increase your endurance.

An important part of breathing is the pause that occurs between breaths. This is when your lungs absorb oxygen and expel

carbon dioxide. If this pause is too short, you feel rushed and anxious. Breathing deeply and slowly is a universal technique to calm the body’s physiological response to stress.

To evaluate the quality of this pause in your own breath, try this exercise: Lie down on your back and bend your legs gently with your feet flat on the floor to alleviate strain on the lower back. On the exhale allow your lips to part slightly while you make a soft “S” sound. Listen to where you have tension in your exhale. Does the sound easily slide away or do you hear yourself pushing out the sound at the bottom of your exhale?

Try slowing your exhale down to be two or three times the length of your inhale. This will help release tension in the intercostal muscles between the ribs as well as around the shoulder girdle area. (Note: If the increased oxygen in your bloodstream causes you to feel light-headed, stop what you are doing and allow your breath to return to its natural pace.)

At first, it is easiest to change inefficient breathing by lying on the floor, where posture isn’t a concern. Later you can progress to sitting on a chair, with the back of your pelvis all the way against the back of the chair. Remember that your ribs are connected to your spine in the back and should hang without effort, similar to how the branches of a tree hang off the trunk. Your collarbone and shoulder blades should also rest effortlessly on the ribs. Eventually, you’ll be able to maintain efficient breath patterns  while standing or dancing. 

Since breathing is automatic, the best way to alter breath patterns is through the use of imagery. This is a form of ideokinesis, using an idea or imagery (ideo) to change muscular patterns (kinesis). Imagining yourself as a one-cell amoeba breathing through your entire body while you lie on the floor, or using the following image while sitting or standing will direct the nervous system to repattern your breathing:

Think of the body as an umbrella, with the spine as the pole and the ribs as the cloth. The ribs expand in all directions when you inhale, like the cloth of the umbrella opening. When you exhale, the cloth closes. The pole (your spine) stays long and straight while you are opening and closing the umbrella.

While the spine does not stay absolutely still like an umbrella, this image helps students differentiate ribcage motion from spinal motion. Dancers who have a lot of tension between their shoulder blades or who stand up straight by pulling their shoulder blades together actually decrease the ease with which the ribcage is able to move, which decreases lung capacity and makes it more difficult to take a deep breath. Through yoga, stretching or massage, you will be able to open up the rib cage and relieve the tension between the shoulder blades.

As you imagine your ribs lifting and dropping like an umbrella, pay special attention to the top ribs at the collarbone area in order to release any shoulder tension. Imagine that they are similar to a heavy necklace and allow them to drop and hang heavily when you exhale. Dancers often lift up those top ribs as an improper way of standing up straight, but remember, the length of the spine determines how tall you stand, not the ribs.

Poor posture and inefficient breathing go hand in hand. If your students stand with a sunken chest and rounded shoulders, their ribs will not be able to expand fully. This is not common among advanced dancers, but rather outside of class, when young or inexperienced students often spend a significant amount of time in a slumped position.

Standing in a slumped position or in a military-type posture, holding your chest up and pulling the backs of your ribs together, will decrease the diaphragm’s ability to move freely. Standing with a swayback will also influence the diaphragm’s movement. Know that as dancers improve their alignment, their breathing patterns will also improve. As their breathing patterns improve, stamina, endurance and overall performance will improve—a definite win-win situation!

Many environmental factors influence your ability to breathe properly as well. Excessive heat, high humidity and pollution are all detrimental to easy breathing and it goes without saying that smoking and second-hand smoke severely compromise efficient breathing. Illness and emotional stress also strongly influence breath, such as when you are congested due to a cold or are taking short, shallow breaths during a panic attack. We hold our breath when we are fearful, limit it when we are nervous and increase it when we laugh. Establishing good breathing habits will help you and your students develop a healthier and more responsive body that will better weather your teaching and performing their careers.