During the breath exercises today, I discovered that focusing on the simple, yet imperative, action of breathing is quite tiring and even difficult. Lying on the floor and working on just moving parts of my body was relaxing and helped me understand the rhythm of my breathing. When we began moving across the space while following our breath, I became fatigued and mentally tired. However, even though I was tired I feel that I followed my breath pretty well, and really let it carry me across the space. It was easy to do similar movements every time we crossed the floor, but it also felt very different in terms of my internal self, and my breathing each time. After doing these exercises I think that I will definitely have a better understanding of how important the rhythm of my breathing is to my dancing, and to simply understanding my body better.
As a trumpet player in high school, I knew breathing was very important. Half of our sectionals at band camp were all about breathing and filling up your lungs in a very short time. I'm use to thinking about expanding while breathing in and it makes sense to exhale while contracting, but switching it around today really confused me. It was an odd sensation to go down while inhaling and expand while exhaling. It definitely takes a lot of concentration to move against your breathing. I was focusing so hard on breathing that I completely forgot to be creative, and it's not like I was limited too much. It's strange how focusing on something small like breathing can really affect what I do on the dance floor.
I do yoga a lot so the concept of focusing on breath was familiar to me. However I don't focus on breath very much when I dance, so that was new for me. I found it kind of inhibiting to my movement because I was so focused on breathing in and breathing out, and now I move, now I don't move, that I didn't feel like I was moving as freely. In the second half of class when we were doing the exercises where we took turns leading, I felt like I was dancing much more and found that my body and my movement was very free when I wasn't thinking about my breathing at all. I also had a lot of fun during that last part of class! =)
The day we did the breathing exercise, I had woken up feeling somewhat sick and nauseous. At the beginning of class I was relieved to find out we would be spending the day working on breathing because to me, it seemed that this would be something very soothing and help me overcome the nauseous feelings I was having. At first, the breathing on the floor was very helpful. Just focusing on breathing while relaxing my entire body on the floor is an amazing feeling. However, when we got up and started doing the breathing exercises across the floor, I quickly became fatigued and dizzy. I really don’t understand why because I don’t see how breathing in more oxygen would make my head spin, but it did. It probably didn’t help that I also had to think about it so much. I really had to concentrate on when to move or not move when I breathed in or breathed out. It became somewhat of a difficult task to move freely but also think about those concepts at the same time. It’s quite interesting how just breathing can really affect your dancing. If I hadn’t been feeling sick already, these exercises probably would have been much more enjoyable for me because they really were intriguing.
At first concentrating on the breathing made moving a little hard. I felt like I was concentrating too much. But after letting myself go and letting the breathing happen naturally, i felt that the movement and letting go became easier.
When we started the "inhale/expand" and the "exhale/contract" it made sense to me. The movement felt more free.
While you were explaining to do the "inhale/contract" and "exhale/expand" I stood there confused a little. The combination of the movement and the breath didn't make sense to me. But when I actually did it, I felt like this combination was way easier! I felt like this combination allowed me to explore my entire kinesphere. it was cool:)
On friday I realized the impact that my breathing has on my dancing. While it made me slightly dizzy and was tiring, I felt like when I really concentrated on breathing it helped me to take full advantage of the exersizes. When you told us to switch it up and move out when we exhaled it threw me off because that is so different from what has been though of as "correct" our entire lives. After I got used to it however it worked just as well as when we did it the normal way. I felt like closing my eyes while doing the breathing exercize was very helpful as well. For some reason when I did it with my eyes open it had less of an effect. I think this might be due to the fact that it was such as internal exercize and it allowed me to not worry about the people around me.
It was really nice to have a class like this at the end of a hard week!I felt like the breathing exercise kinda gave me space to just work out some of my stress through moving and breathing. I was espesially interested in the exercise where we followed eachother in a line! I liked the idea of taking someone else's movement and playing "telephone" with it. I also liked the feeling of following someone else's style and rhythm with the freedom to incorporate my own!
I felt such inspiration from that body movement. It is such a simple focus that the creation of movement allowed by that inspiration is almost limitless. Instructing my body to recreate its feelings was easy because it was a natural impulse. The effects of the breathe seem to resound throughout the body and are easily magnified into greater movements.
I think I also discovered that I am beginning to understand a part of how a dance artist can gain inspiration from something. It is easy to find inspiration from your body, because it is natural for your body to exhibit its internal aspects. External inspiration seems like a harder concept right now, but if I can internalize external inspiration the same way I do breathing, perhaps it will become easier and more natural instead of a forced creativity as a solely intellectual choreographing.
I discovered that concentrating on the breath and letting movement come from the breath is so much more difficult than I expected it to be. I know that breathing is obviously very important and helps to make dancing much more interesting and natural to watch however it is very difficult for me to have the same quality of movement when I am really concentrating on my breath vs when I'm just concentrating on the movement. I think in general it would be a good thing for me to apply more often, not only to dance but to life in general.
I am so sad now that I missed class on Friday. My body had been achy all last week, especially my back and it may have been partly because of the lifting exercises we did last week, but I think that my bike riding may have affected that as well.
In light of that pain, I decided to give my body a rest, but I wish I had known we were doing breathing exercises because that probably would've helped my body aches.
I always find it very useful whenever I'm being asked to take a deep breath or focus on my breathing in a dance or yoga class. It always makes me become more aware of all parts of my body and allows me to move in a smoother and more flowing way. And during friday's class especially, I found my body more engaged while moving, and every movement was made to its fullest intent, fueled by the breathing. It definitely turned out to be a more exhausting dance class, having the lungs and diaphragm be extra active throughout. But I also felt at times that it was easier to move wile actively breathing, as if the breath pulled me and my limbs into different directions instead of my muscles. I really enjoyed the breathing exercises. I feel they give one an advantage and additional options in movement. They made me feel stronger.
I was absent on Friday because my knee has been really hurting recently, but i went to Bikram Yoga to try and help the pain, and breathing is a very important element in yoga. It is a crucial aspect in terms of inhaling and exhaling during the poses. I feel that I can't write much about the breathing experience because I didn't experience it firsthand, but doing yoga and also doing cross country running, I have learned that how you breathe is crucial, and sometimes it's even hard to remember simply to breathe in and out.
I really enjoyed the breathing exercises on Friday. My back was hurting quite a bit so I wasn't able to commit my body fully to the release in the exhalation but it was really interesting to see how the breath could manipulate my movement. The across-the-floor where we would travel on the exhalations felt like seaweed or being blown in the wind, it was a very free, very organic process. It felt circular. When we switched it up to travel on the inhalations, I felt rushed upon movement and immensely relaxed upon my paused. This felt angled. Incorporating breath as a motivator of movement was really interesting and helped me learn a lot as a dancer and a choreographer. You tend to think breath should happen where ever it has room however giving it such an important standing in the movement changed everything.
Reading the posts were great, I am sorry I was sick and missed class. Breath is very important, you have to learn how to breath while dancing...I try to teach this to the team I Coach, I have to actually give them counts to exhale on during a dance..because they get so winded from not brething enough. My yoga practice has helped me to concentrate on my breathing and I find it make difficult poses seem a bit easier.
I have already been familiarized with using my breath to center my focus and come into the moment and my body through doing yoga, but it was a really nice change to be able to feel how my breath wants to dictate what type of movement I make. For example, it felt very natural to close in and hold still while exhaling, and open up and move while inhaling. I was still able to do the reverse or move during both phases of my breath, but it required a little bit of energy to do so before I settled into the rhythm. In all cases, I felt that once I got an alternating rhythm started, it was easier to let go and follow it without thinking or forcing it. I knew from neuroscience that the body is very good at repeating patterns without requiring thought (as in walking, it becomes automatic once it's started), so I utilized that principle in this exercise. Even though the movements were more complex, I let the pattern of alternating movement and stillness, or opening and closing, be attached to my cyclic pattern of breathing, and it allowed my mind to be relaxed.
I really enjoyed the breathing exercises. I found them to be very relaxing. I liked the exercises across the floor a lot where we had to move during the inhale and stop during the exhale. It was interesting to see the difference between the way my body reacted to inhaling and exhaling. I found that my whole body wanted to really expand and move on the inhale and wanted to contract and curl over during the exhale. This made it especially difficult when we had to do the opposite kind of movement on the inhale and exhale. It was very confusing and I had to think really hard about what I was doing because it felt so unnatural. By the end of the class I was definitely tired from all of the breathing but it was still a great experience.
Breath work in dance is something that I've heard mentioned quite a bit but I've never actually done it until now. Since the breath work class I've discovered that I can really use my breath to my advantage. I've started simply in just synchronizing my breathing with a plie exercise and it's exciting to discover how ones body immediately reacts to whether one is inhaling or exhaling. Breath work is something I really look forward to keep exploring.
The breathing exercises were very interesting and I learned a lot about how breath affects ones movement. It was a little uncomfortable at first because I had never worked with that concept before and it was a challenge for me to stay with my breath and not focus on the "how is this supposed to look, am I doing it right" thoughts. Also my best friend was visiting and watched the class so I was nervous what she was thinking. Afterwards she said OH MY GOSH I loved that and wanted to jump in and be a part of it even though I could never move like you were. I thought that was really exciting that she enjoyed watching so much. Also, I loved the exercise when we got into a line and mimicked eachothers movements. That was really fun and interesting to see how it changed depending on where you were in the line.
I love doing exercises that work with breath whether it's just for a dance or movement class, sports, or just to calm down! Of course in class the breathing exercise was very relaxing and when we were asked to accompany that with our movement I felt more free to move in a way. Getting more oxygen is always helpful when moving. I loved "following" my breath with my arms, legs or torso. Also moving through space was an interesting experience because I couldn't help but think of a untied balloon filled with helium air and then being let go. Sometimes I tried to copy this movement. I felt a little bit inspired from dancing on the exhale or inhale across the floor. But I don't think I ever got it out of my mind to not think about what I looked like because the look is so important to me. However, it also prompted me to get in to the breathing as much as possible because I felt that the more real it was to me, the more honest my dancing would look. Joelle
It was interesting to be aware of my breath, interesting to see how much of my energy is focused on continuing to breath. Also, it was relieving to know I was not the only one that was having a hard time trying to focus on breathing while making my moves flow with the exhaling and inhaling. I very much enjoyed the exercise, and became aware that I need to be more present more often.
The breathing exercises caused me to be more aware of this important action. I do a lot of running, yoga, and stretching and I know for a fact if you don't know how to breathe it will make whatever you do a lot harder. It's funny how the body works, once we started focussing on our breathe some of us became light-headed. Some of our movements became easier as we crossed the stage and relaxed us in a very calming way.
What did you discover in your breath work class?
21 comments:
During the breath exercises today, I discovered that focusing on the simple, yet imperative, action of breathing is quite tiring and even difficult. Lying on the floor and working on just moving parts of my body was relaxing and helped me understand the rhythm of my breathing. When we began moving across the space while following our breath, I became fatigued and mentally tired. However, even though I was tired I feel that I followed my breath pretty well, and really let it carry me across the space. It was easy to do similar movements every time we crossed the floor, but it also felt very different in terms of my internal self, and my breathing each time. After doing these exercises I think that I will definitely have a better understanding of how important the rhythm of my breathing is to my dancing, and to simply understanding my body better.
As a trumpet player in high school, I knew breathing was very important. Half of our sectionals at band camp were all about breathing and filling up your lungs in a very short time. I'm use to thinking about expanding while breathing in and it makes sense to exhale while contracting, but switching it around today really confused me. It was an odd sensation to go down while inhaling and expand while exhaling. It definitely takes a lot of concentration to move against your breathing. I was focusing so hard on breathing that I completely forgot to be creative, and it's not like I was limited too much. It's strange how focusing on something small like breathing can really affect what I do on the dance floor.
I do yoga a lot so the concept of focusing on breath was familiar to me. However I don't focus on breath very much when I dance, so that was new for me. I found it kind of inhibiting to my movement because I was so focused on breathing in and breathing out, and now I move, now I don't move, that I didn't feel like I was moving as freely. In the second half of class when we were doing the exercises where we took turns leading, I felt like I was dancing much more and found that my body and my movement was very free when I wasn't thinking about my breathing at all. I also had a lot of fun during that last part of class! =)
The day we did the breathing exercise, I had woken up feeling somewhat sick and nauseous. At the beginning of class I was relieved to find out we would be spending the day working on breathing because to me, it seemed that this would be something very soothing and help me overcome the nauseous feelings I was having. At first, the breathing on the floor was very helpful. Just focusing on breathing while relaxing my entire body on the floor is an amazing feeling. However, when we got up and started doing the breathing exercises across the floor, I quickly became fatigued and dizzy. I really don’t understand why because I don’t see how breathing in more oxygen would make my head spin, but it did. It probably didn’t help that I also had to think about it so much. I really had to concentrate on when to move or not move when I breathed in or breathed out. It became somewhat of a difficult task to move freely but also think about those concepts at the same time. It’s quite interesting how just breathing can really affect your dancing. If I hadn’t been feeling sick already, these exercises probably would have been much more enjoyable for me because they really were intriguing.
At first concentrating on the breathing made moving a little hard. I felt like I was concentrating too much. But after letting myself go and letting the breathing happen naturally, i felt that the movement and letting go became easier.
When we started the "inhale/expand" and the "exhale/contract" it made sense to me. The movement felt more free.
While you were explaining to do the "inhale/contract" and "exhale/expand" I stood there confused a little. The combination of the movement and the breath didn't make sense to me. But when I actually did it, I felt like this combination was way easier! I felt like this combination allowed me to explore my entire kinesphere. it was cool:)
-cougar
On friday I realized the impact that my breathing has on my dancing. While it made me slightly dizzy and was tiring, I felt like when I really concentrated on breathing it helped me to take full advantage of the exersizes. When you told us to switch it up and move out when we exhaled it threw me off because that is so different from what has been though of as "correct" our entire lives. After I got used to it however it worked just as well as when we did it the normal way. I felt like closing my eyes while doing the breathing exercize was very helpful as well. For some reason when I did it with my eyes open it had less of an effect. I think this might be due to the fact that it was such as internal exercize and it allowed me to not worry about the people around me.
It was really nice to have a class like this at the end of a hard week!I felt like the breathing exercise kinda gave me space to just work out some of my stress through moving and breathing. I was espesially interested in the exercise where we followed eachother in a line! I liked the idea of taking someone else's movement and playing "telephone" with it. I also liked the feeling of following someone else's style and rhythm with the freedom to incorporate my own!
The breathing exercises were amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
I felt such inspiration from that body movement. It is such a simple focus that the creation of movement allowed by that inspiration is almost limitless. Instructing my body to recreate its feelings was easy because it was a natural impulse. The effects of the breathe seem to resound throughout the body and are easily magnified into greater movements.
I think I also discovered that I am beginning to understand a part of how a dance artist can gain inspiration from something. It is easy to find inspiration from your body, because it is natural for your body to exhibit its internal aspects. External inspiration seems like a harder concept right now, but if I can internalize external inspiration the same way I do breathing, perhaps it will become easier and more natural instead of a forced creativity as a solely intellectual choreographing.
I discovered that concentrating on the breath and letting movement come from the breath is so much more difficult than I expected it to be. I know that breathing is obviously very important and helps to make dancing much more interesting and natural to watch however it is very difficult for me to have the same quality of movement when I am really concentrating on my breath vs when I'm just concentrating on the movement. I think in general it would be a good thing for me to apply more often, not only to dance but to life in general.
I am so sad now that I missed class on Friday. My body had been achy all last week, especially my back and it may have been partly because of the lifting exercises we did last week, but I think that my bike riding may have affected that as well.
In light of that pain, I decided to give my body a rest, but I wish I had known we were doing breathing exercises because that probably would've helped my body aches.
:(
Shanna.
I always find it very useful whenever I'm being asked to take a deep breath or focus on my breathing in a dance or yoga class. It always makes me become more aware of all parts of my body and allows me to move in a smoother and more flowing way. And during friday's class especially, I found my body more engaged while moving, and every movement was made to its fullest intent, fueled by the breathing. It definitely turned out to be a more exhausting dance class, having the lungs and diaphragm be extra active throughout. But I also felt at times that it was easier to move wile actively breathing, as if the breath pulled me and my limbs into different directions instead of my muscles.
I really enjoyed the breathing exercises. I feel they give one an advantage and additional options in movement. They made me feel stronger.
- Alisa P.
I was absent on Friday because my knee has been really hurting recently, but i went to Bikram Yoga to try and help the pain, and breathing is a very important element in yoga. It is a crucial aspect in terms of inhaling and exhaling during the poses. I feel that I can't write much about the breathing experience because I didn't experience it firsthand, but doing yoga and also doing cross country running, I have learned that how you breathe is crucial, and sometimes it's even hard to remember simply to breathe in and out.
I really enjoyed the breathing exercises on Friday. My back was hurting quite a bit so I wasn't able to commit my body fully to the release in the exhalation but it was really interesting to see how the breath could manipulate my movement. The across-the-floor where we would travel on the exhalations felt like seaweed or being blown in the wind, it was a very free, very organic process. It felt circular. When we switched it up to travel on the inhalations, I felt rushed upon movement and immensely relaxed upon my paused. This felt angled. Incorporating breath as a motivator of movement was really interesting and helped me learn a lot as a dancer and a choreographer. You tend to think breath should happen where ever it has room however giving it such an important standing in the movement changed everything.
Reading the posts were great, I am sorry I was sick and missed class.
Breath is very important, you have to learn how to breath while dancing...I try to teach this to the team I Coach, I have to actually give them counts to exhale on during a dance..because they get so winded from not brething enough. My yoga practice has helped me to concentrate on my breathing and I find it make difficult poses seem a bit easier.
I have already been familiarized with using my breath to center my focus and come into the moment and my body through doing yoga, but it was a really nice change to be able to feel how my breath wants to dictate what type of movement I make. For example, it felt very natural to close in and hold still while exhaling, and open up and move while inhaling. I was still able to do the reverse or move during both phases of my breath, but it required a little bit of energy to do so before I settled into the rhythm. In all cases, I felt that once I got an alternating rhythm started, it was easier to let go and follow it without thinking or forcing it. I knew from neuroscience that the body is very good at repeating patterns without requiring thought (as in walking, it becomes automatic once it's started), so I utilized that principle in this exercise. Even though the movements were more complex, I let the pattern of alternating movement and stillness, or opening and closing, be attached to my cyclic pattern of breathing, and it allowed my mind to be relaxed.
I really enjoyed the breathing exercises. I found them to be very relaxing. I liked the exercises across the floor a lot where we had to move during the inhale and stop during the exhale. It was interesting to see the difference between the way my body reacted to inhaling and exhaling. I found that my whole body wanted to really expand and move on the inhale and wanted to contract and curl over during the exhale. This made it especially difficult when we had to do the opposite kind of movement on the inhale and exhale. It was very confusing and I had to think really hard about what I was doing because it felt so unnatural. By the end of the class I was definitely tired from all of the breathing but it was still a great experience.
Breath work in dance is something that I've heard mentioned quite a bit but I've never actually done it until now. Since the breath work class I've discovered that I can really use my breath to my advantage. I've started simply in just synchronizing my breathing with a plie exercise and it's exciting to discover how ones body immediately reacts to whether one is inhaling or exhaling. Breath work is something I really look forward to keep exploring.
The breathing exercises were very interesting and I learned a lot about how breath affects ones movement. It was a little uncomfortable at first because I had never worked with that concept before and it was a challenge for me to stay with my breath and not focus on the "how is this supposed to look, am I doing it right" thoughts. Also my best friend was visiting and watched the class so I was nervous what she was thinking. Afterwards she said OH MY GOSH I loved that and wanted to jump in and be a part of it even though I could never move like you were. I thought that was really exciting that she enjoyed watching so much. Also, I loved the exercise when we got into a line and mimicked eachothers movements. That was really fun and interesting to see how it changed depending on where you were in the line.
I love doing exercises that work with breath whether it's just for a dance or movement class, sports, or just to calm down! Of course in class the breathing exercise was very relaxing and when we were asked to accompany that with our movement I felt more free to move in a way. Getting more oxygen is always helpful when moving. I loved "following" my breath with my arms, legs or torso. Also moving through space was an interesting experience because I couldn't help but think of a untied balloon filled with helium air and then being let go. Sometimes I tried to copy this movement. I felt a little bit inspired from dancing on the exhale or inhale across the floor. But I don't think I ever got it out of my mind to not think about what I looked like because the look is so important to me. However, it also prompted me to get in to the breathing as much as possible because I felt that the more real it was to me, the more honest my dancing would look.
Joelle
It was interesting to be aware of my breath, interesting to see how much of my energy is focused on continuing to breath. Also, it was relieving to know I was not the only one that was having a hard time trying to focus on breathing while making my moves flow with the exhaling and inhaling.
I very much enjoyed the exercise, and became aware that I need to be more present more often.
The breathing exercises caused me to be more aware of this important action. I do a lot of running, yoga, and stretching and I know for a fact if you don't know how to breathe it will make whatever you do a lot harder. It's funny how the body works, once we started focussing on our breathe some of us became light-headed. Some of our movements became easier as we crossed the stage and relaxed us in a very calming way.
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