Skinner Releasing Technique workshop
Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) 15 Introductory classes
with
Bettina Neuhaus
This course offers the rare opportunity to experience all fifteen classes of the SRT Introductory Level within a concise but spacious format of two separate weeks
1-7 Dec 2025 – classes 1-7
4-10 May 2026 – classes 8-15
Joan Skinner's carefully crafted imagery and movement material invites us to engage in-depth with a poetic and experimental pedagogy, and to immerse oneself in the individual releasing and learning process.
About Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT)
SRT is an experimental and poetic approach to movement, dance and creative process developed by American dance artist Joan Skinner (1924-2021).
SRT stimulates the process of letting go of unnecessary tension, releasing new possibilities in how we perceive and how we dance. Poetic imagery, shared partner-studies and improvisational practices, sometimes interwoven with music and sound, facilitate deep and more nuanced kinaesthetic experience of movement and a sense of wholeness.
Basic concepts such as a fluid awareness, suppleness as readiness, moving off balance, and autonomy of the breath and different body parts are explored in playful ways - individually, with a partner, or the group.
Noticing as a first step for change and allowing movement to happen are key to this practice that emphasizes effortlessness, multi-directional alignment, presence and freedom in movement and stillness.
More information about SRT: The Kinaesthetic Imagination, an interview with Joan Skinner by Bettina Neuhaus
The pedagogy
Drawing from a vast body of poetic imagery and movement material developed over the years, Joan created, in the 80s, a comprehensive, progressive pedagogy that is taught at three levels: Introductory, Ongoing, Advanced. Furthermore, Joan developed an SRT pedagogy for children.
In the Introductory Level the foundational releasing principles and underlying concepts of SRT are progressively introduced with different materials that overlap, refer back and evolve. It is a series of fifteen thoroughly crafted classes designed for all those coming to the technique for the first time and for people returning to the basics in order to further refine and expand their releasing practice.
Based on an embodied understanding of these basic principles, the twelve classes of the Ongoing Level comprise increasingly sophisticated imagery and extended transformative states, arranged in a more spacious way. The Advanced Level draws from an expansive series of further imagery and movement material.
Skinner Releasing Technique is a registered trademark and can only be taught by certified teachers.
Some of the benefits of SRT
SRT is unique in the way it enhances the unfoldment of technical skills and artistic sensibility in the individual. It addresses and empowers the creative self in the act of dancing, tapping into one's own imagination and intuition, opening new fields of connections and movement possibilities.
Furthermore, one might discover new layers of the powerful interrelationship between words, sound, imagination and movement and how these sources speak to our dancing and sense of poetry.
Refined awareness and skills acquired through SRT can provide a ground from which new insights and inspiration can emanate into daily life, training, teaching, artistic processes or performance contexts.
The fifteen classes of the Introductory pedagogy
Experiencing the fifteen classes is an opportunity to engage in an extended process of learning and transformation through dancing. One cultivates trust, openness and availability on physical, perceptual and imaginative levels, which might continue to further unfold in these areas of our life.
For those who wish to do the SRT teacher training, it is a prerequisite to have done all Introductory classes at least twice.
The Course
1-7 Dec 2025 – classes 1-7
4-10 May 2026 – classes 8-15
For whom
The course is open to dancers, performers, dance teachers and somatic practitioners as well as to movement lovers of all backgrounds and levels with or without previous experience in SRT.
Please note: priority is given to those who commit to both weeks; exceptionally it is also possible to enroll for only one week. Those who register only for the second week (4-10 May 2026) need to have some previous experience in SRT as this week comprises later classes of the pedagogy.
Schedule for both weeks:
Mornings: Each day starts with an SRT class of 2,5 - 3 hours.
Afternoons: Based on the Releasing principles experienced in the morning, the afternoon sessions offer different entries into creative process (such as writing and drawing) towards the making of improvised dances.
Through playful practice time in the studio and outdoors in the natural environment we discover how we listen and respond to the different layers of ourselves and our surroundings. Allowing our sensuous body and intuition to guide us to what wants to emerge as we're moving, gives voice to our imagination and the poetry of our dance.
Teacher:
Bettina Neuhaus (Amsterdam) is an Independent Dance Artist, teacher and mentor, active in the field of performance and theatre for more than three decades.
She holds a Master Degree in Creative Practice Professional Pathway from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in partnership with Independent Dance, London.
Bettina studied dance at the Theatre School in Amsterdam and Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) with Joan Skinner (2001-2004), Robert Davidson, Stephanie Skura and Theresa Moriarty in Seattle. She is a certified SRT teacher at both Introductory (2004) and Ongoing (2011) levels and has taught SRT workshops and intensive courses in more than fifteen countries.
For over 30 years, Instant Composition in performance and collaboration with dancers, musicians, visual artists and light designers have been at the heart of Bettina's work. Her artistic interest centers especially around the narratives and poetry, which unfold in the interplay between dance, live music and language, revealing aspects of our human condition and interdependence.
In the past 25 years she has participated in numerous research projects and conferences in Europe that investigate Instant Composition as a way of creating performances.
With a growing interest in human ecology, she has been developing a movement practice in natural environments since 2010, which she shares in projects and special workshops.
Bettina teaches Instant Composition and SRT at independent studios, art and dance colleges and universities in Europe and South America.
Organizational information
Timetable:
Week (1-7 introductory classes of SRT): 1.-7.12.2025 (Monday to Sunday)
Week (8-15 introductory classes of SRT): 4.-10.5.2026 (Monday to Sunday)
Schedule:
Monday: arriving between 15:00 and 19:00 (starting with a dinner at 19:00)
Tue-Sat: class from 9:30 to 12:30 and from 15:00 to 17:00
Sunday: class from 9:00 to 13:30 (ending with a lunch at 13:30)
Venue:
Our event will take place at a beautiful settlement in the countryside of Czech Republic surrounded by nature. Center Buchov is about 50 km south of Prague.
We will dance in a 120 sq.meters studio with wooden floor. Another small studio will serve us as our living room or a place for an afternoon and evening rest, study or socializing. Both studios are heated by central heating, plus both of them have a fireplace which can be lit if needed.
We will be accommodated above the studios on the first floor in the rooms with 3 to 4 beds per room. One room is across the small yard a few meters from the studio above the dining area. All the bedding is provided.
There are two showers and four toilets on the ground floor between the studios.
And two showers and two toilets in the building where the dining area is.
In May, in case of warm weather we can use the outside dining space, outdoor lounge and small swimming pool. There is also a big pond about 20 minutes by walk from the venue.
For more pictures about the accommodation and the centre itself click on: https://www.centrum-buchov.cz
Food:
Delicious vegan food prepared by our amazing chef, the master of ayurvedic cuisine and the author of cook book Světlana Synáková who will prepare three meals a day for us including beverages.
If you have any allergies or intolerances, please do not forget to mention it in the formular.
Please note, that a personal use of the kitchen will not be allowed. However, in the small studio and the dining room there will be a kettle for preparing your own teas and coffees and there is also a refrigerator for your snacks/food.
For more info about Světlana and her work click on: https://goodkarma.cz
Transportation:
Venue Buchov is situated about an hour by car or by bus from Prague. In the info email you will receive more detailed information with the route for the car and concrete transport connections from Prague or other destinations.
Price:
1. Early bird price (before 31. 7. 2025): 700€ / per person per one week or equivalent in CZK
2. Regular price (from 1.8. - 30.10. 2025 ): 770€ / per person per one week or equivalent in CZK
Price includes tuition, accommodation, studio, three meals a day and organization fee/costs.
Each participant is responsible for their own health insurance.
Cancellation fee:
50 % can be returned up to 2 months prior to the workshop, 25% can be returned up to 1 month prior to the workshop. Less than one month prior to the workshop, the whole fee will be charged.
Registration:
To register, please fill in the form (link below) including your CV (in doc or pdf form).
Please note, there is a limited number of spots and the priority will be given to people signing for both blocks. .
Participants applying only for the second week (May 2026), shall have experience of minimum 1-4 introductory classes. Thank you for understanding.
Link to the registration form:
Contact:
If you have any questions please contact us via srt.czech@gmail.com or on +420728042666
