How to make a modern dancer breathe?

How do you make a modern dancer breathe? That is a very good question. In my modern dance class we are working on a few different concepts, one concept being breath. Breathing is essential to any dancer, athlete, or person for that matter. Ask any runner, or weight lifter. They all know there's a skill to breathing. Our bodies have this quick impulse of tightening up when we don't breathe, hoping that holding our breath will give us more strength. When holding your breath really just does the opposite, it limits your full range or motion. Without breathing in a dance sequence, the body will naturally tire faster. Have you ever just sat quietly and heard yourself breathe? Breath is what gives life to the body. The chest rises, the chest falls. It is the first thing we do in this life when we come out of our mother's womb, and the last thing we do on this earth before we die. I feel like after many years of dancing at BYU I understand this concept a lot better than when I first started school. But I still often find myself constricting my breaths, and thus, limiting my ability to work with my body. I think it's a psychological problem. As humans, we don't like to hear other people breathe, or hear ourselves breathe. The natural sound our body makes in labored breathing, would make anyone sound like they are out of shape. That's probably why people try to control their breathing when they walk up the BYU stairs. Don't want to sound like a heffer. Haha! I think dancers are scared to breathe, it doesn't seem lady like, or proper to just breathe naturally. Most studio raised dancers have taught themselves to hold their breath until the end of the dance. Today in class, we were dancing this piece over and over until the point where I wanted to pass out. I just did not think I had enough energy in my body to keep moving through the dance repeatedly. Suddenly I heard my own rhythmic breath all alone in the studio. With at least 15 other dancers, doing what I was doing, I never once heard anyone breathe, but from the look on everyones faces we were all ready to collapse. I'm so used to dancing around people who are more advanced than me. I'm not used to initiating concepts such as breath. Ussually, if someone dancing beside me is using breath, I am able to remember and follow their example. It was the most beautiful realization, as I grew tired and weak that breath was my body's last attempt to muster up the strength to move. It made me think of the bigger scope of life...if you're not breathing, you're probably dead. It was like dancing in class with no one beside me. How many dancers are limiting their ability to move, by dancing dead? Dance absolutely has more meaning for me when I remember to just breathe. We cannot even begin to live a rich life of human movement, until we start breathing. Dancing has no life without breath, we remove the fundamental skill of how we exist. The body is designed to inhale, and exhale. Breathing adds to the dynamics of rise and fall when we dance. It's a high and a low, the law of opposition, variation, and dynamics. Simple concept...right? Not really. It's taken me years to remember to breathe naturally in my modern dance classes. Breathing is a skill, a skill that I am confident we can master. Breath can therefore enhance life and the quality of our work. All those famous athletes out there, and mothers who have been through labor, already know this. How do you make modern dancers learn to use breath? Well, you work them out, until they have no choice left...but to breathe.