Tag Archives: releasing

Workshops

OSF online thru Movement Research Spring 2026

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OSF ONLINE with Teresa Smith thru Movement Research, spring 2026! Mondays 10-11am (ET) in March, April and June. These 1 hour releasing classes are a great way to start your week, and can be done in your home, in any amount of space, anywhere in the world. I look forward to dancing with you in international virtual community. Register thru Movement Research https://movementresearch.org/classes/2906/

In OSF classes we enter a creative process; letting go of outer layers of holding to find primal energy and ease. Guided by embodied imagery as a powerful tool for transformation we’ll learn to move with agility, transparency and depth. Through alignment studies, movement exploration and group improvisation we’ll cultivate a deep connection to our inner and outer environments. In this series we’ll explore three unique states of dancing; I move, it moves me, It moves! A remarkably effective way of learning, the OSF approach can catalyze transformation in many kinds of practice, in unique movement virtuosity, and in daily life.

What to expect: This is an improvisational movement class for all levels of movers, and can be done with any amount of energy. Kinesthetic insight is approached in multi-directional, structural and poetic ways. Music and silence is interwoven with (spoken) poetic imagery, deep meditations and active, focused improvisation. Open Source Forms™ was developed by Stephanie Skura and is deeply rooted in the seminal work of Joan Skinner / Skinner Releasing Technique™. I’ll also draw material from studies with Yvonne Meier and my Earthbody research.

Teresa Smith brings to her teaching a warm appreciation of each person’s essence and delights in awakening the creative spirit. She is a certified teacher of Open Source Forms™ and practiced the root form Skinner Releasing™ for three decades. Through her dance company ‘Earthbody’ she presents performance, artwork and workshops emerging from an intimate conversation with the body, psyche and natural environment. https://www.earthbodyevents.com

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Teresa Smith

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Earthbodyevents.com

Teresa brings to her teaching a warm appreciation of each person’s essence and delights in awakening the creative spirit. She is a certified teacher of Open Source Forms and studied the root form Skinner Releasing Technique for several decades. Encountering the work of Joan Skinner in the mid-nineties had a profound influence on Teresa as a choreographer, performer and teacher. She is deeply happy to return to this source through OSF, and honored to join Stephanie Skura and all OSF teachers in carrying this important work into the present moment.

Teresa teaches Open Source Forms, contact improvisation, authentic movement, dance improvisation and composition. She is also a certified teacher of Sufi Dancemeditation, a facilitator of Grof Legacy Breathwork, and a senior facilitator and mentor in Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork. Through Earthbody Events she presents performance and workshops emerging from an intimate conversation with the body, psyche and nature environment.

In addition to presenting her own solo and group choreography, Teresa has performed internationally in the work of Stephanie Skura, Yvonne Meier, Ellen Webb, Joan Laage, Lance Gries, David Hurwith, La Fura dels Baus, and with many improvisation ensembles. She is a graduate of Bennington College, VT (B.A. dance & anthropology), and the European Dance Development Center in Arnhem, NL.

Workshops

OSF – in person 2x monthly classes spring 2026

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Fridays 11am – 1pm in Kingston, New York (2026)

OSF Dance Classes in the Hudson Valley! (2 hr from NYC) Join us as we practice releasing into moving and being moved. Fridays 11am-1pm March 13 & 27, April 10 & 24, May 8 & 22, June 5 & 19 @ the Arts Society of Kingston, NY (97 Broadway, 2nd floor). All abilities and movement experience levels welcome. Special price for this foundational series, or drop in at any date. Please rsvp: earthbodybreath@gmail.com. Learn more: earthbodyevents.com

In OSF classes we enter a creative process; letting go of outer layers of holding to find primal energy and ease. Guided by embodied imagery as a powerful tool for transformation we’ll learn to move with agility, transparency and depth. Through alignment studies, movement exploration and group improvisation we’ll cultivate a deep connection to our inner and outer environments. In this series we’ll explore three unique states of dancing; I move, it moves me, It moves! A remarkably effective way of learning, the OSF approach can catalyze learning and transformation in many kinds of practices and in daily life.

What to expect: This is an improvisational movement class for all levels of movers, and can be done with any amount of energy. Kinesthetic insight is approached in multi-directional, structural and poetic ways. Music and silence is interwoven with (spoken) poetic imagery, deep meditations and active, focused improvisation.

Teresa Smith brings to her teaching a warm appreciation of each person’s essence and delights in awakening the creative spirit. She is a certified teacher of OSF and studied the root form Skinner Releasing for several decades. Through Earthbody Events she presents performance and workshops emerging from an intimate conversation with the body, psyche and nature environment.

Workshops

July 6-10, 2015: Five day OSF and Radical Ecological Intimacy Workshop at Ponderosa Tanzland with Abby Crain.

July 6-10, 2015: Five day Open Source Forms  and Radical Ecological Intimacy Workshop at Ponderosa Tanzland with Abby Crain.

STEP ASIDE OR HUMANS DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING

Sometimes it is useful to get out of the way. Sometimes it is useful to put aside our precious egos and and let go. Sometimes it is useful to allow things to move through us. When we practice this way, unfathomable transformations begin to happen, sometimes out of nowhere, and sometimes by surprise. We will both lie on the floor for untold amounts of time and find ourselves dancing with abandon that will never to want to stop. We will quiet our minds and bodies so deeply that places deep inside of ourselves will begin to loosen and shift.

Sourcing from the profound structures of Stephanie Skura’s Open Source Forms,  this class furthers the dynamic interplay between imagery, consciousness, releasing, and the unpredictable dynamism and mutability of the unfettered body and mind in motion. In this workshop,  we will move the practice of OSF  out onto the land and into the environs of Ponderosa Tanzland.  We will experiment with OSF as a portal to radical ecological intimacy with Ponderosa’s  flora, fauna, soil, air, rocks and water. In this time of profound ecological shift, in which familiar landscapes are being rapidly transformed by forces of climate change and our fellow species are beginning to disappear, this workshop offers the practice of OSF as a place from which to begin to explore  kinship with our co-species and the land upon which we live as we navigate this transtion.

This work is excellent for both dancers and non -dancers, trained movers and improvisors.
SIGN UP AND GET MORE INFORMATION HERE. SPACES ARE LIMITED.
http://www.ponderosa-dance.de/en/tanzland-festival/july-6-10-abby-crain.html
https://www.facebook.com/events/357550001095897/

ABBY CRAIN IS A U.S. BASED DANCE MAKER, TEACHER, AND PERFORMER. SHE HAS PERFORMED EXTENSIVELY WITH MIGUEL GUTIERREZ AND SARA SHELTON MANN AS WELL AS MORE RECENTLY WITH GUILLERMO GOMEZ PEÑA AND JESSE HEWIT. HER WORK IS DEEPLY INFLUENCED BY HER STUDY OF OPEN SOURCE FORMS WITH STEPHANIE SKURA.  She was certified to teach OSF in the fall of 2014.

http://www.abbycrain.net