Open Source Forms (OSF) Teacher Certification Training
is a Teacher Training & Certification program begun in 2009 by Stephanie Skura, in response to requests by dance & theater professionals for teacher training. It's an 'open source' system: drawing on Skura's extensive experience as a core Skinner Releasing teacher and teacher trainer, & culled from decades of ongoing research & practice in improvisation, performance, choreography, writing, & theater directing -- by faculty Skura, Dixon & Dryden.
WHAT
OSF focuses on cross-fertilizations and deep commonalities of Skinner Releasing technique and creative process.
It's guided by the philosophy that the source of creativity & wisdom is available in each of us.
OSF Teacher Training is a rigorous program that prepares teachers to be inventive & responsive to specific needs & situations, while deeply understanding the underlying spirit & intentions of the work involved. OSF offers methods to access depth, specificity, courage, rigor, honesty & freedom in movement, vocal practice & performance. Its aim is to empower participants to adapt these methods & discover their own in response to teaching & performance situations they find themselves in.
Current trainers are Stephanie Skura, Nate Dryden, and John Dixon.
OSF teacher certification offers rigorous grounding in concepts & underlying spirit of the releasing & improvisational work involved. It includes:
- categories & purposes of activities in each session
- essential concepts that underlie & inform
- understanding of how layers of consciousness function to create an environment most conducive to transformation
- in-depth experience with imagery & its powerful effects
- innovative approaches to create imagery & encourage physicality of the voice
- understanding of principles & guidelines for language & music: their often-overlooked enormous contribution toward a conducive learning environment
- understanding of the healing aspects of the work, & guidelines for responsible facilitation
- foundations for improvisational exploration of concepts
- relevant philosophical issues that inform & activate our practice
These elements can create an environment extraordinarily conducive to learning & transformation, and one that truly empowers people in their creative & growth process.
Thus grounded, teachers develop tools & intuitive abilities to adapt and develop the work for their individual situations -- be that teaching Open Source Forms classes, integrating the work with other practices, integrating with their own creative practices, or adapting to specific situations.
Our intent is to train teachers to be as creative & present with the work as its original creators, and continue to develop it into the future, so it remains vital and responsive to the world as it changes.
Our two-year Teacher Certification program includes:
Four weeks' classes, labs, discussions & practice sessions during the first summer,
Four weeks' trainee practice-teaching labs the second summer.
Three writing projects between years, with faculty telephone feedback & discussion.
Periodic private sessions during both summers to facilitate individual processing.
WHO, WHEN & WHERE
Prerequisties: Certification trainees need substantive prior experience studying & practicing Open Source Forms or Skinner Releasing, as well as improvisation and teaching experience.
The 2009 & 2010 location was Huntingdon, PA, sponsored by Juniata College.
Our 2011/12 location is the University of Washington Dance Department's beautiful studios in Meany Hall, Seattle, WA.
2011 dates are July 6 - 31. (Similar dates in 2012)
Our future plans include additional locations & programs, beginning in New Zealand and northern Italy.
PILOT EXPERIENCE IN 2009/10
Pilot sessions were in Spring 2009 & 2010 with the first Open Source Forms teacher certification group: an extraordinary gathering of souls, all leaders in their respective fields, all hungry to go deeper into research with their colleagues. We began evolving methods to train that deeply understand the underlying spirit of the work, provide specific tools for teaching, & leave possibilities open for how these tools might be adapted to various situations.
It was profoundly opening, rigorous, deep, collaborative, & joyous. There were many breakthroughs, much laughter, tears too, vulnerability, love, hilarity, & hard work! Practice lab classes taught by trainees in their second year were sophisticated, assured, & original, giving us astounding confirmation that our methods are working beyond expectation.
PROGRAM FOR ALREADY-CERTIFIED SKINNER RELEASING TEACHERS
Training sessions have included already-certified Skinner Releasing teachers who are active & creative in their fields, and eager to participate in sessions, talks, and labs. We're honored to host these revolutionary souls in the field, all of whom help create an extraordinary environment for depth and transformation.
In 2011, in response to input of Skinner Releasing teachers who've participated in our sessions, & others who've contributed ideas, we began a program designed especially for certified SRT teachers. They participate in all OSF Teacher Certification sessions, with some separate sessions geared to the needs of certified SRT teachers -- their questions, ideas, visions for the future, & ways they can get involved with OSF.
Certified Skinner Releasing teachers who participate in both summers of OSF certification training sessions will receive OSF Teacher Certification, & have an opportunity to join the OSF faculty in future trainings worldwide.
We recently completed the first year of our second OSF teacher certification group. It's another extraordinary group of varied souls bringing a wide array of skills, experiences, & dreams for the future. There were great discoveries & research, revelations galore, & future directions illuminated. How to be rigorous & also set people free? A question worthy of continuing research...
CLASSES FOR EVERYONE
We plan to begin offering Open Source Forms sessions for people who want to take classes rather than train to teach them, for those wanting more experience in the practice, and those who want to go on to become OSF teachers.
I base my teaching & directing on, among other things, trust—trust that people have within them wisdom & creativity. They just need to find their own gateways. Stephanie Skura
For more information on future dates & fees, to express interest in participating, or with any questions or ideas, please email Stephanie at stephskura@mac.com.
Join our facebook group: Open Source Forms: for updates, photos, & connections with each other.
COMMENTS BY OSF PARTICIPANTS
It's a joy to be doing this work. It's challenging and informative, & provides both sanity & expansion in our very busy lives. OSF has been so many things, or done so much, for me. And the people practicing it here are truly experiencing and changing. It's powerful! I feel really lucky. I'm so grateful for the timing and serendipitous things, and then, most importantly, your invitation, that led me to doing the training. Amanda Hamp, certified OSF Teacher, Choreographer, Dance Faculty, Luther College, Iowa
This work is unbelievable. It's opening new universes for me, in my body and in my understanding. It's as powerful as you have described. I have a deep and growing level of admiration for your teaching, your understanding, and your spirit through this work. It's opening whole new realms of imagining how we can more deeply fold this into our program. It's important and exciting to imagine the possibilities. Andy Belser, Certified OSF teacher, Theater Director, former Head of Theater at Juniata College, PA, current Head of Theater at University of North Carolina at Wilmington
I can't say enough about how inspiring it's been for me. I am writing after having given two five day workshops using the OSF work as the main container for my teaching practice. The experience, in both cases has been extremely rewarding. I knew at the time of graduating that the training program had given me a new boost of confidence in regards to my teaching practice, but the significance of that confidence and the richness of its rewards did not begin to become fully apparent to me until I put the work into practice. I have felt consistently blessed and moved both by what the training has allowed me to share with participants and how they have responded to the work. By tapping into the essential concepts offered in the OSF training I have been able to revisit aspects of my teaching with a new perspective, a strong intuitive wisdom, and tools that have created a fertile and welcoming environment for participants to tap into their creativity in new and rewarding ways at their own pace. I feel privileged and energized by the experience, and am inspired by what feels like the boundless possibility for continued discovery in the process of teaching itself.
I am grateful to all those who played a role in my certification training, including my fellow graduates, from whom I learned perhaps the most through our shared experimentation. I am so very grateful to you, for your generosity, wisdom and guidance in this process. This training is invaluable. Susanna Hood, Certified OSF Teacher, Choreographer/Performer/Vocalist, Artistic Director of hum interdisciplinary performing arts
