Issue #19
Fall/Winter 1999
Release
The issue of exploring concepts of release through language primarily in the journal and the implications of that came up very often in our editorial meetings as did differences between pedagogies.. distinctive bodies of work developed by artists and thinkers defining their pedagogies with their own language the following is an excerpt from a conversation with DD and Trajal had at one such meeting. —Sarah
DD: Stop using the word "release"
T: Why? why?... it's a powerful word
DD: It sucks! Lumping a whole community under one concept...
T: I respect the fact that DD is limiting or not using this word
DD: Well certainly not to address a community or a large body of work.
T: I on the other hand want to offer the possibility that this word is constantly indeterminate, that the word is totally decentering and that can be a possibility for it's empowering usage.
DD: But if I saw that word on MTV... I mean what would they do for a 30 second spot? I hate that the word that is part of specific pedagogy is used to loosely define something so general.
T: Then why do you talk? Stop talking. All words loosely represent something,! don't think it starts in the pedagogies, I think it starts in the body.
DD: When I lie on my back I don't think of the word "release"... I feel texture and sound, spaces etc... I don't think the word.
T: I do.
DD: Well I don't, it's so out of the text book for me... I hate ideas like, "come from a release background", don't ever describe me like that.
T: I just think that it is a useful and connecting word.
DD: It's just not a graceful coinage for me... I would rather say Kung Fu.
T: I inherit release by being born.
DD: Oh, as a concept, yes.
T: That's what I'm talking about.
DD: But the word, I hate.
T: The word describes the concept.
DD: No, I don't think so, the word is so loaded and creates confusion. I don't think it's healthy appropriation of the word
T: It's a question...can't we leave it as a question.
DD: I think that if we create an umbrella we are in trouble
T: I am taking it under the body's umbrella. We and the Senegalese all have an inherent connection.
DD: (Talks about Min Tanaka Body Weather Laboratory)
DD: I like contract/ release... I don't like release technique.
T: The commonality of the usage of the word "release" is what is powerful about it...it is a way people can refer to a broad concept and be understood.
DD: I don't accept that! Instead of them saying they know what it is, I want them to say that they don't know what it is!
T: You have lost that battle.
DD: No way. Go ahead and use the word but don't expect that I know what you're talking about.
T: I want to show that the word is indeterminate... that they might be able to say that this is release and so is that! Language is a virus and we can't control it.
DD: Yeah, but if you describe your work in language as a mixture of release techniques that is lame and we won't know what the work is.
T: Yeah, that's lame, but that is how people think, I want to give people another way to organize their thoughts. I am not trying to be Mr. Release, that's not my issue.
Editorial team
Contributing Editor
Trajal Harrell - DD Dorvillier - Sarah Michelson
Ellen Fanning
Contributor
Daniel Lepkoff - Joan Skinner - Bob Ajar - Laura Shapiro - Hiroko Ishimura - Brooke Berman - Diane Torr - Stephanie Skura - Daniel Lepkoff - Elaine Summers - Marcia Monroe - Brendan McCall - Vera Orlock - Sara Rudner - Julie Ludwick - Lance Gries - Mabel E. Todd - Andrew Marcus - Dona Ann McAdams - Sarah Michelson - Clarinda Mac Low - Abby Rasminsky - Ninotchka Devorah Bennahum - Trajal Harrell - Sara Wookey - Pat Cremins - Christy Harris - Andre Lepecki - Peter Laarman
Articles
An Editorial Conversation
The issue of exploring concepts of release through language primarily in the journal and the implications of that came up very often in our editorial meetings as did differences between...
Letters to the Editors
May, 7th 1999 A Letter to the Editors: This particular journal is perhaps different than other journals. The subject of this journal ("RELEASE TECHNIQUE") is a body of specific work,...
Some Condensed Thoughts
In its questioning of authority, tradition and the status quo, the spirit of the 60's was about release in politics and psychology as well as the arts, release in its...
Art of Energy/Qigong
"There was a whole group of pioneers—Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman, La Argentina and their works were close to each other. For them and me, there is one common question, that...
Release Technique Writing arching words from fingers into pen, into computer...
When I started writing performance text, which in time, would evolve into plays, I was taking a series of release technique morning classes at the old Movement Research on Varick...
Release, Aikido, Drag King, Aikido, Release
A couple of years ago, I was alone in the train station in Hannover, Germany, waiting to transfer trains. I was accosted by a man, who wanted to steal my...
Movement for Intellectuals
When I used to live in New York, every now and then I'd teach a class for my friends who weren't dancers. I called it Movement for Intellectuals. It was...
What is Release Technique?
My understanding of Release Technique originates from my experiences; as a student of Mary Fulkerson, with whom I studied intensively between the years of 1970 -1974. Mary Fulkerson referred to...
Bio-kinetic Tension: Loving tension, because without tension there is no movement; without movement there is no life
Tension is the word that defines an entire bio-physical system. It is the name we call our physical and mental electric system, our "electro motive force." It is the way...
“Solta A Franga”
In my mother language, Portuguese, the translation for the word "release" can refer to a chaotic state of being. We even have a slang saying "Solta a franga", meaning "release...
Allan Wayne/Transparency
ONE: A mentor who profoundly impacted my life as a dancer is a man I never met, who died twenty years ago. His name is Allan Wayne. TWO: Born Wayne...
Body-Mind Centering: Releasing into Options
Release—letting go of something caught or held, liberate, free—this is what I observed the first time I saw Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. It was at a workshop in NYC, I believe...
Dynamic Dialogues
Releasing began for me when I went into a studio with Nancy Topf in February, 1984. After twenty years of performing and touring and a diagnosis of degenerative osteoarthritis in...
Sensing From Within
I was introduced to Skinner Releasing Technique in 1983 as an undergraduate at the University of Washington when Joan Skinner was the head of the dance department there. Joan was...
The Spirit Has Legs
I am finished with bones, muscles, joints, etc... I don't need them anymore. My "self' is ready and capable of standing here, or moving there. I am yielding to it....
Releasing and Line
The value of physical and psychic release, I believe, lies in the process of discovering one's limitations, and the gradual relaxation of those limits. This is a highly personal process....
Photo
Dr. Dr. Please Release Me part 2
Pedagogically and technically in dance, the concept of release now has a whole rainbow of meanings and definitions. Sarah and I started wondering about the larger context of the concept...
Gypsy Release
Gypsy Release: Rhythm as Persecution Narrative in the Feminist Flamenco Technique of Bailaora Belen Maya and her singer, Mayte Martin . Atavistic and lyrical, the deep, raspy voice of Mayte...
Speaking His Mind
George Stamos: Release is a conversation between tension and release....the kind of release that attracts me is like the kind of release you find in karate, like at the end...
Photo
What Gets Released in Translation?
I am suspended at some thirty thousand feet from the- ground. Trying to feel grounded, at ease...released? 1 am on a continuous search for the language that will allow my...
Untitled
Is there a possibility, as Wilhelm Reich might imply, of transcendence through release? If there are emotional blockages that manifest in the body, and if to release those blocks leads...
The Influence of the Alexander Technique on Modern Dance Aesthetics
Background The Alexander Technique has been an influential factor in the development of modern dance, both in training and aesthetics for over thirty years. A continuum of dancers, choreographers, and...
Within The Folds of Air
The space unfolds, reveals itself. The space is consumed, it shrinks. The space is sucked into a man's body. The space becomes the body. The body cannot properly contain the...
Troublers of Israel
[ Edited Version ] Sermon for the Judson Memorial Church, April 18,1999 - Celebration of Freedom and Art "When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, 'Is it you, you...