Issue #18

Winter/Spring 1999

Release

Cover of Issue #18

Release, what is it, what are the assumptions we all make about it, a physical practice, a spiritual practice, a technique, an aesthetic, are we all doing it, are none of us doing it... do any two people mean the same thing when they use this word, can it be defined, is it an abstract concept or an anatomical actuality, is it all in the mind, is it a sign of the times... does it connect you or make you more lonely or both, are we hanging on too tight to one idea by even making this journal in the first place... does it translate into other languages... well does it? Or should it always be described in English… does this depend on what I mean? Well, I mean release, but what aspect, what kind, from which school of thought, from whose body perspective? Do you understand me, how much do we care that we're right about what it is... how much can we let go of… who are we?

— Sarah Michelson

Editorial team

Contributing Editor

DD Dorvillier Trajal Harrell Sarah Michelson

Design

Ellen Fanning Andrew Fearnside

Contributor

Allison Foley Karen Kohn Bradley Virginia Reed Susan Klein Catherine Levine Diane Moss Mary Fulkerson Erick Hawkins Renata Ceilchowska Sarah Michelson Kirsty Alexander Neil Greenberg Trajal Harrell Mike Iveson Sophia Cowing Loraine Corfield Tania Apelbaum Tania Apelbaum Jon C. Gibson Susan Osberg Anita Feldman Hank Smith Jennifer Monson Ishmael Houston-Jones Clarinda Mac Low Sarah Michelson Abby Rasminsky Dunya Dianne McPherson Katherine Profeta

Photographer

Dona Ann McAdams

Articles

1-1

Rice Cake

As I pick up the rice cake with my right hand, the muscles along the right side of my neck, around my shoulder, and in my upper arm gradually tighten...

5-5

The Release Class

Choose a subject or metaphor for exploration, (or for very advanced people enter the process without preparation.) Rest comfortably in one of the rest positions, lying on the back with...

13-13

On Nancy Topf

She is in my bones, my vertebrae, the back of the throat where the spine and the cen­tral axis touch. Her life's work is in there—deep in my bones. She...

14-14

Young Frog Falls Over

In the 1960's I was in my twenties. My generation included many dancers who started thinking of movement in a generic sense and turned away from technique. Perhaps many of...

14-14

Shuffle Long

Rhythm Tap Dancing is about release. When I started to tap dance again as an adult, about twenty years ago, I found that my daily habit of a ballet class...

17-17

On Release

I hinge forward at the hips, stretching flat against my thighs, stomach pulsing gently against my legs, the way my childhood dog used to feel beneath my sock-clad feet under...