What is Release Technique?
To change a habitual movement pattern you need to think about the whole organism including the mind and how it functions. “The basic method of effecting change in the body was designed with the following idea in mind: by the time an intention has become realized in a physical action, it is too late to alter how this action is played out. The seed of an action is embedded somewhere between the forming of an intention and the subsequent launch into action. This seed is the body’s “image” for the action.”(Lepkoff, 1999) I believe this means that to do an action your body already can do it and by the time it has done it is too late for you change that action. It is an imprinted in our bodies’ routine already.
Mary Fulkerson worked with developmental movement as a source of basic vocabulary. “Mary has a system of anatomically based images that mapped out functional pathways through the architecture of the body.”(Lepkoff, 1999) These pathways showed lines of compression and support and lead to channels of sequential flow of action. “These images were considered to be ever more refinable once we were ready to perceive in finer detail.”(Lepkoff, 1999) These lines were up the front of the spine to the base of the neck, then up to the back of the skull and down the face again through the spine and down the sacrum and round both halves of the pelvis, down the legs and feet and back up through the hip joint and back up the front of the spine. An important part of Mary’s classes was to channel these pathways. “This would both re-align the body so that weight was supported through the centre of the bones as well as re-pattern the flow of energy so that action was initialled by the muscles closest to the bodies centre. This shift would release the outer muscles of the body from holding weight and free them for what they were meant to do, namely move the body. This was one reason the work is called “Release Technique”
A prime position used for receiving and responding to new physical images is the constructive rest position. Realise technique is not just realising muscle tension but releasing deep physical pre-conceptions as well. Paxton realved potential pitfalls with Mary’s in Contact Improvisation. “I encountered Steve Paxton’s work with Contact Improvisation. This gave me an alternate view on my work with anatomical images. Steve’s work also addressed the presence of mind in the body with a subtle yet important difference”. (Lepkoff,1999) Paxton used the mind as lens and made the dancer more aware of observation and alertness within the mind. Paxton’s work differs from Mary’s as he focuses on physical sensation. “I remember remarkable times of unleashed expression of energy in my Release classes, however, Contact Improvisation regularly exposed my body to higher levels of physical stimulation”. (Lepkoff,1999) Paxton showed pitfalls such as the images Mary used were only maps for interpreting physical actions. The images eventually blocked the movement as they over though them.
“In my own work I’ve realized the ‘release’ as a physical principle is only one part of a more complete description of the functioning of the body.” (Lepkoff, 1999) Release work helped develop integrated intelligence and a healthy body, it prepared the dancer for Contact Improvisation, and Contact Improvisation developed a focus on physical sensation, teaching yourself, interplay and the use of imagination with dance.
Bibliography
Lepkoff, D (1999) What is Release Technique? [online] Avaliable from: http://www.daniellepkoff.com/Writings/What%20is%20Release.php [Accessed 16 November 2014].