Breathing

Mary Ann told me that 'lifting' is done by breathing in. Susana Miller talked of the body as like a bandoneon, the unwinding twist of the ocho cortado an inhalation, ending with collecting: the bandoneon, the great lung and voice, which resonates the body and voice of anyone near it. A Guardian article a while back, last September or earlier, gives three simple exercises used in sports training to increase lung capacity, and also suggested that a tendency to short sentences in spoken English is related to breathing patterns, and that the longer, more fluent sentences of, for instance, Italian, are related to different breathing habits. Breathing is obviously important in dancing but it had never occurred to me that phrasing of tango could be underlined with breathing. As if there wasn't enough to remember already! And of course if we sit slumped at a desk all day our natural posture and breathing are compromised.