Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) is an innovative approach to dance and movement training developed by Joan Skinner in the early 1960s. SRT utilizes image-guided floor work to ease tension and promote an effortless kind of moving, integrated with alignment of the whole self. Tactile exercises are used to give the imagery immediate kinesthetic effect; spontaneous movement is frequently evoked by imagery and movement studies. SRT smoothly integrates technical growth with creative process. Through the 1970s, Releasing technique was taught by Joan and the American Contemporary Dance Company, primarily in Seattle, Washington. The work continues to be taught and practiced today, deeply influencing many contemporary movement artists.
The first part of my funded activity was a 5-day intensive SRT residential course led by Polly Hudson. Set in a small rural retreat in Wales, lodging in hand built cabins, eating produce grown on site I took part in seven 2-hour workshops within a small group of around 10 practitioners. Amongst the class were professional dancers, voice and acting coaches, and individuals who connected with the work via yoga practice. There is informative content online, concerning the origin and facilitation of SRT here:
http://www.skinnerreleasing.com/articles.html
Further funded opportunities were to maximise the training opportunity, including design tutorials I was to receive following the residential. Across the 5-days I kept detailed notes and sketches (an integral part of the SRT process) with a view to produce a small publication that would act as a reference point and stimulus for further work. Looking back on the process I have been reflecting what SRT meant to me as a (visual) artist, and how it connects to my practice:
My work is rooted in process, and attempts to portray the making and presentation of art as an ongoing process. This notion of process resonates with motion, movement and flux, and I find the way that I make and present work, often rests precariously in a nebulous state. Reliant on variable factors, the presentation of my work switches back and forth between differing points of focus and attention. I could say that perhaps I choreograph my actions, setting conditions, whilst dancing between evolving states. These ideas sit close to the ways in which I would define SRT; a series of techniques for reinventing movement and response to the physicality of ones body, and the spaces it inhabits.
The process starts slowly, laying on the floor after gentle rolling and stretching of the limbs, inhaling and exhaling the energy encapsulated within mind and body. Following spoken prompts, the body is led through different activity and movement, with invited shifts and changes to disrupt the pattern or flow that might be establishing. The technique embraces polarities and opposition – celebrating transition and liminality. As direction or motion emerges, it may be spun off, slowed down and bounced against – flux, suspension and uncertainty is harnessed and released in a fluid, ephemeral and almost weightless-weighted way.
Body graphics and partner work are core components within the work. I really enjoy the term body graphic, as it suggests a systematic way of aligning and informing the physical body. Working in pairs, we were often led through ritualistic preparation of limbs and energy – enabling an open a free application of movement. There is a strong focus on visualisation and language within the work, either through descriptions of imagined materials and states, or the suggestion of presence through contact and physical connection. Walking out of a SRT class is as if one is equipped with new instruments that promote a more intuitive and authentic approach to moving the body.
The writing and drawing that takes place at the end of each class, presents a meditative opportunity to redraw pertinent feelings and ideas that emerge during the deep state of motion. I used these exercises as an attempt to harness an inventory of prompts and suggestions that could be used again after the session – an index of reminders. Drawing is not a process I utilise within my practice, however an unusual visual language started to emerge through my sketches – and I am intrigued and excited to develop this mode of representing movement and direction in a visual way.
The visual work I produced during the sessions, was taken on to the next stage of my training, and used as material for working with An Endless Supply, to design a small publication. I will write about that process in further posts. I also scheduled funding to receive mentor support from Darryl Georgiou, across a series of studio visits, assisted by Rebekah Tolley. These visits assisted in defining some of my processes and looked at the methods for ‘housing’ my work in a systematic way. This notion of ‘housing’ or containing links in closely with what I sensed during the SRT process. That the body contains a huge range of potential, and that alternative ways of ‘programming’ or instructing this potential can lead to new modes of operation or function.
