Skinner Releasing Technique and somatic dance as processes of embodied becoming
What is it about?
This article considers the creative somatic dance processes of Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) within a frame of new materialist thinking and ethics. It considers SRT processes in relation to Rosi Braidotti’s posthumanist call for emancipated nomadic human subjects equipped to create sustainable futures. I draw parallels between Braidotti’s theory and propose SRT as a process of becoming through dance, uniquely placed to reposition and develop meaning, skills and knowledge within dance for the twenty-first century.
Why is it important?
This article highlights new materialist ideas of pre-rational embodied process towards aliveness, spontaneity and emancipation ; and considers the nuts and bolts ways that SRT’s somatic dance process can progress this. It represents the first direct exploration between somatic dance and politicised new materialism.