Tag Archives: Skinner Releasing

OSF Advanced Teacher Training 2026

June 22 – 27, 2026
Monday – Saturday, 10:30 am – 6 pm PDT/Seattle Pacific Time

[In your own time zone: https://www.worldtimebuddy.com]

Both in-person and virtual ! In-person is preferred; virtual is available for those who cannot travel.

Russian Community Center
704 19th Ave E
Seattle WA 98112
United States

Facilitators:  Stephanie Skura,  Nate Dryden

Open to all certified OSF and Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) teachers, and combined with opportunities for creative practice experiments. A six-day program in a respectful, collaborative atmosphere. Introduces a wealth of rarely-taught material beyond the introductory level, passed on by Joan Skinner and developed by experienced practitioners during the past 25 years. Learning to create classes at this level.

Taking advantage of the creative state in which we find ourselves when practicing this work, we’ll spend some time dabbling, seriously-easefully, in performance-making:  a time to truly and freely experiment, with options for informal showings along the way.

REGISTER HERE




Teresa Smith

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.

OSF – in person weekly classes (foundational series)

Thursdays 5:30 – 7pm in Kingston, New York

OSF Dance Classes in the Hudson Valley! (2 hr from NYC) Join us as we practice releasing into moving and being moved. Thursdays 5:30-7pm thru December 18, 2025 @ 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. 2026 weekly class times TBA. 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. A remarkably effective and revolutionary way of learning, the OSF approach can catalyze learning and transformation in many kinds of practices and in daily life.

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.

ANNUAL 2025 OSF OPEN WORKSHOP IN SEATTLE

June 2 – 20, 2025
Mondays – Fridays, 10:30am – 1:30pm PDT
The Russian Community Center of Seattle
704 19th Ave E, Seattle, WA
, US

Facilitated by Stephanie Skura and Manuela Bondavalli

 All are welcome  —  whether new to the practice or experienced. We’ll navigate  the entire 3 weeks of Introductory level work, And lots of juicy improvisational processes, refined by Skura over three decades of teaching & choreographic practice, and refreshed continually with new ideas & experiments.

  Now in its twelfth year, this annual Seattle OSF workshop continues to provide solace both as refuge and engagement, assembling a worldwide community for movement, creative practice, and deep immersion. Being amongst colleagues with diverse experiences in teaching, healing, therapy, performance, theater, visual art, writing, organization-building and more, contributes to a catalytic yet safe environment for deep transformation.  Sessions are inclusive, welcoming & vitally useful for participants at all levels.  Deeply rooted in & fluidly expanded from Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT), OSF involves shedding outer layers, accessing primal energy, agility navigating subconscious realms, imagery as potent tool for transformation, & developing a high degree of consciousness without self-consciousness.                 
        OSF celebrates diversity & individual empowerment: free of inhibition, accessing intuition, inviting the mind to collaborate. Sessions offer powerful strategies to catalyze freedom, specificity & courage in movement, vocal practice & creative practice.
A key aspect is individual creative empowerment as an instigator of positive change on the planet. With our dancing and our voices, this work says NO to fascism, with diversity, mutual respect, deep reflection, vulnerability and collaboration.

Join us for one, two or three consecutive weeks.
Discounts for multiple weeks. Additional $100 early registration discount before May 15, 2025.
Those with comprehensive experience of Introductory level OSF or SRT may opt to drop in and/or join for Advanced Practice Week.

**Minimum of first two consecutive weeks fulfills prerequisite for OSF Sourcing Deeper Program. 3 consecutive weeks fulfills prerequisite for our Advanced Practice workshops.**

Fees:

OSF ADVANCED PRACTICE WEEK SUMMER 2024 LIVE IN SEATTLE

Open to all who’ve experienced the first 3 weeks of OSF or SRT, either in 2024 Open Workshop or previously. Already a part of four-week OSF Open Workshop, Experienced practitioners may choose just the Advanced Week.

For those who want to deepen their practice. 
Advanced OSF material is deeply rooted in & fluidly expanded from advanced Skinner Releasing (SRT) practice. Though 12 codified ‘Ongoing’ SRT classes are sometimes taught, we create unique advanced sessions, culled from a wealth of material passed on by SRT creator Joan Skinner & early practitioners, & integrated with Skura’s/OSF’s improvisational research.  This level of the practice is sophisticated, deep, and evolved in alignment approaches — richly navigating states below conscious level. 

Prerequisites: Full spectrum of Introductory OSF or SRT (3 weeks). 

FEE: $260 USD

REGISTER for Advanced Practice Week
$ 50 discount with registration by May 1!

New! Further Beyond Beginnings in Seattle

OPEN SOURCE FORMS
FURTHER BEYOND BEGINNINGS

July 11- 15, 2022 — IN-PERSON
Monday through Friday
10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Russian Community Center
Capitol Hill, Seattle
Facilitators: Stephanie Skura & Nate Dryden

Cost: $30/day or $130 for full week (5 days).

Join us! If you have at least two weeks’ experience with Open Source Forms or Skinner Releasing, we invite you to join current OSF Teacher Trainees for five daily sessions, encompassing material offered during the third week of OSF programs.

First-week material is what’s most often taught in OSF & SRT workshops, and itself comprises a body of foundational material that bears deeper & deeper exploration for many years. Those who’ve gone a bit beyond WEEK1 may have experienced some of the fascinating, valuable developments of WEEK 2 material.

The rarely-taught material of WEEK 3 — elegant, intricate and absorbing — offers a bridge toward the highly sophisticated, deeply nourishing world of Advanced Practice. Images are more sophisticated. We are ready to spend more time in deep processing mode, and more deeply within our own psyches. We find new effective alignment awarenesses and methods for opening our voices. Energy moves in spirals. Many concepts are integrated, and we discover the web-like connections within ourselves, with each other, & with the world. As awareness expands both inward and outward, we find new avenues for healing, a calming sense of compassionate connection, and ready pathways toward presence & suppleness that extend into our lives beyond the studio.

During what often feels like an increasingly stressful world swirling around us, we Open Sourcerors feel continually grateful for the valuable resource of this practice in our lives.

*Photo: Wendy Perron & Stephanie Skura in ’Surreptitious Preparations for an Impossible Total Act.’ Photo by Ian Douglas.

2022 Annual OSF Open Workshop in Seattle

Photo Credit: Stephanie Skura & Sally Dean in Surreptitious Preparations for an Impossible Total Act, photo by Ian Douglas.

Registration now open for our 2022 Annual Workshop! Participants can choose to attend for the first two, or the full three weeks. Drop-ins are limited to those with comprehensive experience of Introductory Level OSF or SRT. 

6 – 24 June 2022
10:30am – 1:30pm PDT
The Russian Community Center of Seattle
704 19th Ave E, Seattle, WA

Facilitated by Stephanie Skura and Keely Isaak Meehan

“It is such a special place, space, and world you facilitate.” Jeremy Steward

The OSF ANNUAL OPEN WORKSHOP is open to all — those without prior experience in SRT, OSF or traditional dance, as well as more experienced practitioners. This workshop assembles a worldwide community for movement, creative practice and deep immersion, in a catalytic environment of colleagues with diverse experiences in teaching, healing, therapy, performance, theater, visual art, writing, community-building and organization-development.

Deeply rooted in and fluidly expanded from Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT), OSF involves shedding outer layers, accessing primal energy, agility navigating subconscious realms, imagery as potent tool for transformation, and developing a high degree of consciousness without self-consciousness. This work celebrates diversity, collaboration, and individual empowerment: free of inhibition, accessing intuition, inviting the mind to collaborate. OSF sessions offer potent tools to access freedom, specificity & courage in movement, vocal practice and creative practice. A key aspect is individual creative empowerment as an instigator of positive change on the planet.

*Fulfills prerequisite for OSF Sourcing Deeper Program. 3-week workshop fulfills prerequisite for our Advanced Practice workshops as well.*

“Having these classes available to me is saving my butt. Of course they are saving everyone’s butt — but I do not take lightly the haven that I am being provided by this gathering of souls that you have brought together in your own way. “ Kris Knutson

Fees:

2-week OSF Open Workshop (6-17 June 2022):
Full Price: $675


3-week OSF Open Workshop (6-24 June 2022):

Full Price: $850

OSF Beyond Beginnings Online, March 15 – April 19, 2022 with Susanna Hood

Tuesdays from 1-3pm ET (Montreal)
March 15 – April 19, 2022
Price: $120 CAD

These classes are destined for anyone who has had at least the first week of OSF/SRT Introductory material. Depending on enrollment, I may play with some remixing as in the Jan/Feb series. However I will prioritize foundational sequences,  beginning with material from the second week for anyone experiencing this level of the work for the first time.


Info, registration, and payment: susannahoodhum@gmail.com

OSF Basics Online, Jan 26 – February 23, 2022 with Susanna Hood

Wednesdays from 1-3pm ET (Montreal)
January 26 – Feb 23, 2022
Price: $100 CAD

These classes will focus on the foundational material from the first week’s worth of OSF/SRT Introductory material. It is perfect for anyone new to the practice and a great opportunity for those with more experience to go more deeply into this basic material.


Info, registration, and payment: susannahoodhum@gmail.com

Waitlist Open for 2020 OSF Sourcing Deeper with Stephanie Skura & Co-Faculty

Apply Now!

The 2020 OSF Sourcing Deeper Program is currently full. However, we have a waitlist open for qualified applicants. Please apply below if you are interested in this program.

Please Note:

Due to safety concerns during the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have shifted all July 2020 workshops and programs online.

July 6-24, 2020
Monday – Friday, mornings & afternoons: 10am – 12pm & 1pm – 4pm PDT
Location: ONLINE

Faculty: Stephanie Skura, Nate Dryden, Susanna Hood, assisted by Keely Isaak Meehan

Jump to Pre-requisites and Application

The  3-WEEK OSF SOURCING DEEPER  preparatory program (formerly called OSF Pre-Teacher-Training) is designed for experienced OSF & Skinner Releasing practitioners who long to more deeply understand underlying conceptual structures & strategies of OSF. Some may decide to follow with an OSF Teacher Certification Program. Others may want to take the work in other directions.

Though not a commitment to OSF Teacher Training, OSF Sourcing Deeper is a required pre-requisite for all applicants to OSF Teacher Certification Programs.  It’s also designed for those who might take the work in other directions —  e.g. research in movement, somatics or other fields, integrations with other practices, or purely for study & reflection, allowing future applications to unfold in time. 

OSF Sourcing Deeper is a ‘first pass’ at the complex array of skills & concepts that allow facilitators to create seemingly magical environments conducive to deeply transformative experiences. 

The program includes the full spectrum of Introductory Level OSF material in morning sessions, plus substantive afternoon participatory discussions, vocal practice, sophisticated improvisational practice, hands-on practice, writing & drawing practice, language & music considerations — plus related readings in relevant philosophical topics that enhance our understanding of the profound concepts underlying this practice. For those who choose to follow with OSF Teacher Training, Sourcing Deeper will render the rigors of OSF Teacher Certification more digestible, less overwhelming, and more fun!

After Seattle sessions conclude, Sourcing Deeper participants planning to join an OSF Teacher Training Program will continue their process during the intervening year with independent study projects, including faculty feedback via skype or email.

Fees

For the online program in July 2020, we are offering three price options for those accepted into this program:

1) 30% reduced rate for online participation: $1170 USD (since online program expenses are reduced –no studio rent, no faculty travel or housing expenses– we are able to offer this special discount )

2) If you still have a salary & can afford to pay a little more you can opt to pay full price: $1752 USD (former early-bird discount rate). We’ll use it to subsidize those who are more financially vulnerable during this uncertain time.

3) For those out of work due to this pandemic & struggling to pay program fees we offer a further reduced rate: $585 USD (50% of online fee) .

Once accepted to the program registration and payment is due by 30 May 2020. Enrollment in Sourcing Deeper is not guaranteed until payment is received.

Registration information will be provided upon acceptance. Please see the form below to apply!

PREREQUISITES FOR OSF SOURCING DEEPER

Applicants for OSF Sourcing Deeper need experience with a minimum of two consecutive weeks of Introductory Open Source Forms or Skinner Releasing Technique, preferably within the past two years. To apply for OSF Sourcing Deeper Seattle 2020, please complete the application below.

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