Comments from Students: Releasing
"Stephanie's presence is supportive, encouraging & challenging all at the same time. Her class unlocked my movement capabilities as no other has. I'd always been slightly inhibited when dancing in front of other people; this class dissolved that." Grad Drama Student, UW.
"Today I was muscularly sore and tired at the start of class. But at the end I was no longer aware of this and was moving easily without pain. This is the first time since my car wreck that I’ve been able to completely relax my back. It’s been a long time since I’ve bent back that far without fear of pain. It’s so nice to move without tension and pain! I had an amazing time. I felt so free so follow my impulses, to jump and turn and swing. Movement from the core, from the breath, from the ground to the sky above." Grad Drama Student, UW
"The only other time I’ve felt this much freedom of movement and control and balance has been in the water."
"You continue to be such an inspiring, sensitive, bright teacher. The structures & the inner structures of classes seem so clear & wise – very inspiring, & a gift to be experiencing!"
"I’d go anywhere to study with you. You understand that there is more than can be understood. You break it down & down & find missing links or I find missing links because you helped me find them, helped me find something in myself I didn’t know I was looking for."
"I cannot begin to explain to you what today was like for me. Words are insufficient for the idea! I lose awareness of self in such a way that creativity is unhindered – unheard of, especially for me. Thank you for this opportunity. It was, is, will be invaluable." UW grad drama student
"Somehow I decided to jump, & was surprised by how long it was taking to come down. I felt almost like I was on a trampoline!"
"There were no ends to any moments…..At one point, I suddenly found myself in space with absolutely no gravity. I felt so light, yet so expansive & fleshy. Strange but absolutely wonderful feeling. It was like in a dream, but very very real. I had a complete trust in my body." Dancer, Toronto Dance Theatre
"I felt graceful for the first time since I can’t remember when."
"I felt a physical exhilaration I’ve only ever experienced singing before. I felt for the first time in my life that I dared to think of myself as an artist."
"I felt lithe, powerful, and always more whole than I am accustomed to feeling - a complete being moving with hypersensitive integration. A beautiful day - endless ideas, limitless energy."
"As free as I’ve felt in years. Coordination, and body and mind felt open. Freedom to choose to do or not to do. Complete releasing into tears by the end. Refreshing invigoration and relief."
"Thank you for your wonderful, clear, and fanciful teaching.
I value the times I get to take a Skinner Releasing class so much. It changes my whole outlook and feeling on being and living."
"I feel easy and relaxed. There was this floating, imagination-driven movement and joy. Strength, balance, limitlessness, perfection. I got a chance to be unashamed, truthful, and grounded in a state of drift. Is there such a thing?"
"I loved Stephanie Skura’s class. Her depth of knowledge was apparent & she shared generously." SFADI participant.
"I felt I could go way off/out of my normal zone because of finding length & weight. when I stood up, I felt really tall." UW Dance Student
"I feel the effortlessness & efficiency of muscles letting go into a more natural length."
"Healing & reconnection. The suppleness to change. Vision: internal & external."
"AHHHHH!!!!! SIIGHHH!!! WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! I feel loose with electric sensations & impulses. My hands & feet are boiling with heat. My mind, however, is very relaxed & free from strain." Student, VA Tech.
"I played a game when I was little with my younger brother – we called it the wind game. We would spin in circles being pushed & pulled. Connected & broken apart by an invisible force. It was a soft wind, but a firm one. We would play outside in the sun, barefoot in the grass. and I remember getting so dizzy we’d fall on the ground & laugh. I remember the roses & the sun -- & his laugh...I’ve never felt so much like a child in my grown-up body. I moved & breathed like I used to then, before I had to worry about anything." Student, VA Tech.
"This is the most free I’ve felt in my entire life. I haven’t felt this free even when dancing alone in my room. I usually carry a lot of tension in my shoulders, & this is the first exercise where that tension was partially released. I LOVE THIS FEELING! My head & arms feel light like a kite on a springy day." Student, VA Tech.
"I am ready to take on anything with the state I am in. The ability to not think about what you’re going to do next gives you opportunities to achieve things you never thought you could. It’s an invigorating feeling as well as a sense of progress & accomplishment." Student, VA Tech.
"I feel more relaxed & calm than I‘ve felt in weeks. I found the ability to focus on myself & body rather than the outside thoughts of the day. I feel vigorous, alive, soothed & warm. Also free & uninhibited." Student, VA Tech.
"Letting go degree by degree. New neurological pathways firing. Continually getting easier, much like falling with trust."
"This expansion in the back really enhances my own sense of solidness, not of heaviness - a firm feeling of existence, of infallible being - like I am here."
"Skinner Releasing is really unique in the emphasis it places on allowing a person’s own process to take over, within a consciously designed framework that also allows technical growth."
"I value the times I get to take a Skinner Releasing class so much. It changes my whole outlook and feeling on being and living."
"Your workshop has been so inspiring. I found myself doing things that I never thought I could do. For instance, I’m always afraid of falling down, even when I’m just walking normally! But I found myself just relaxing into the floor, and trusting myself. What an amazing feeling! It takes so much energy to hold onto fear. I found that letting go was almost like a yawn - just going into gravity, into the feeling."
"This work feels strangely familiar, like another language that I imagine. Movement for my humanness to embrace, devour, explore."
"Another day of freedom! I lost all inhibition and had no pressure of product, just process. Just get me back in a studio now. It’s given me new paths for movement research. And, hey, new movement. My creature muscles have been massaged. Thank you thank you! Dancing with no fear of judgment unlike my daily class."
"Ability to balance better and sweep and extend with more confidence. Allowed me to dance with eyes full open and inner awareness intact."
"Today’s class was my first experience with this form of release work and I feel invigorated by a certain bliss that comes from a body that feels all its parts and energies are integrated with one another. A surprising note to me was the ease I felt which enabled me to move in that graceful and yet grounded manner through the space. I found the sponge image particularly useful as applied to my thoughts, my brain - letting go of shards of self-consciousness - a key at this time for me. I feel/see this work as a doorway to a certain freedom I am looking for."
"The gentlest nudges suggest the slightest adjustments. But, they are huge, creating new rooms, spaces, places inside and out to explore/discover/see. I experienced a richness in movement I sometimes forget."
"The concept of sponginess helps me see where I am still holding tension in my being and gives me permission to do something different... Wow - this process really feeds myself back to myself in a very powerful and undeniable way. Thank you!"
"What a nice way to come back to whole body freely moving through space! It feels great and reminds me I can really move!"
"I am eternally grateful for this opportunity and wonderful freeing experience. Today, I felt like a child on many occasions. I lost my sense of reality. I remember one moment where I distinctly felt as though I were flying! Many, many wonderful experiences today. New ways of thinking, new ways of moving. I have some new tools and look forward to using them. Thank you for your generous openness, your sharing and your strong direction."
"Fabulous alertness - I am celebrating."
"I definitely experienced the very tip of an iceberg - I began to hear new voices, new ways of experiencing ease. Thank you for your sensitive, committed teaching."
"So supportive, inspiring, clear, direct."
"I find a very profound sense of release through this work, where the whole body is more open and receptive."
"Your attitude is the key element that allows this work to integrate in my body. It’s a type of ‘soul’s dance’ and it’s wonderful. P.S. My alignment has drastically improved!"
"My body feels as though I just got out of an effervescent bath."
"A genuinely nurturing, growing experience."
"These classes help me keep it all afloat - allowing my inner buoyancy to float me through what in the past would have been scary and overwhelming, and almost impossible to accomplish."
"I release all the time now. I’ll never be the same, nor will my teaching."
"I haven’t felt this free in a long time. You make me brave."
"I felt a full awareness of others - no fear of seeing, being seen."
"Places heretofore unknown - giving rise to feeling and emotions and energies
heretofore unknown - expanding my horizons - thank you."
"I was suddenly doing things I’ve never done before in my body. All this energy and & centeredness came to me - no matter what outrageous move or leap I did, I always landed in a balanced way. Later, running around the room, I was almost gliding just above the floor. I’m so energized by this class - it’s helping so much!" Kate Clarke, actress, director
"A safe environment in which to come undone and discover is so rare."
"Nothing I’ve tried has done so much to bring me into physical and spiritual harmony with myself and others."
"My back hurt before class but now it doesn’t. This stuff is magic & so simple."
"The last exercise of all the echoes of earlier exercises put me in another dimension. I could feel my mind revisiting all the images we had explored in such a rapid fire exploration that I was only tangentially aware of the way my body was moving in response. Energetically, I could feel a coursing of current through my body like it was a busy intersection. It was constant radiation and although I'd experienced things like it, it’s unlike anything I'd known before."
"I felt like I cleaned out my system. I felt lighter & looser. My spine felt the most articulate it ever has. So did my joints. Most of the tension left. I feel like I can take on the world."
"A grandest thank you for love of us and love of the work. It all comes through in your presence with us & the gifts of your wisdom, knowledge & humor."
"Tonight, there was a moment, a dance where the imagery went away – where the intention was gone & all that was left was this eternal moment of lyrical suspension, with tactile sensitivity to air, the floor – surfaces connecting to surfaces. A rich moment, pure kinesthetic being – no mind, no body, just present energy."
"I keep moving toward a forthright transparence, it pours out of this work. Sometimes this past year I’ve felt that my dancing self was fading away – I felt so limited by my ankle (injury). I feel now that it’s still all there continuing to percolate & bubble – that it will always be inside, ready to fly when invited." Choreographer, Performer, Toronto.
"Remembering how good it feels to be doing this moving with you. Powerful & empowering. The more I let go, the more in control I feel! Happy." Choreographer, Teacher, Toronto.
"All I can say is that this is what my body craves."
"I went to some primal places for the first time this year."
"The improvised movement with torso suspension was the most connected I’ve felt to my classmates, ever. This room really became holy territory, and sense of time & place, the urgency of the world outside vanished, and it was lovely." UW Professional Actors Training student
"Thank you so much for taking me through this experience. I’ve learned so much, & even more important, I can see openings to new things to learn. It’s an exciting & accepting new time to develop in."
"I didn’t know my body could feel so light & relaxed while grounded at the same time. I felt free to explore any avenue that I encountered. Change of direction came with such ease & efficiency. Inner peace. A focused but easy mental state – something I find difficult at times to maintain or obtain. Light & fluid & an awareness of my surroundings without too much overload or commenting mentally. A state of readiness without tension." UW PATP student
"Stephanie quickly drew me into the process and, to my surprise, within 20 minutes I felt more grounded & noticed a substantial improvement in my balance. Since then, I’ve felt a definite improvement in body control & expression in my dance – arising from some intangible kind of improved body sense. I am intrigued! This was enough to get me to sign up for a series of classes…."
"Today I felt more free than in any movement class I’ve ever been in. It’s most like the feeling I have in a good dream. It is light & fluid & I feel like I can change what I’m doing at any time"
"There is power in the presence that is gained from this type of focus. It is very inner-strength-type work for me."
"I‘ve had so m any reverberations from our work with you. It’s been so interesting to see the long-tem effects. I feel the subtle ways my spine is awakening. And all the ways I know how to make little adjustments. I can feel that I still have a long way to go…. but I feel like a system or a something…has been introduced to my body, and I feel like it will just grow & continue to help me be upright, and more supple. I feel more oxygenated."
"It's good to be back. I sense a new elegance, or eloquence, on the outer edges of movement. Rough & jarring once, the dialog of energies is now a sound that soothes, a task that accumulates freedom. I feel softer than I ever have. I am waiting more now, giving myself permission to follow the encrypted frequencies as they move in their own rhythms. I don’t give orders. Forceless."
"WOW! I felt so connected to my body. Free, supple, liquid, & yet centered. I haven’t felt centered all week -- & then all of a sudden – Boom! The image of the strings connected to the head really made me feel coordinated. The image of the anchors into the earth really worked for me. I felt rooted with the liberation to move anywhere with balance. I’m SO excited about this class!" UW PATP student
"I feel integrated & articulated at the same time. There is grief flowing through me & lightheartedness all at the same time."
"You have been the inspirer, the seer, the knower. I’m so grateful for every part of this time." Skinner Releasing Teacher Trainee
"Thank you for your great love & generosity. You’ve been an invaluable treasure in our learning process, & one so dear. Thank you for your openness, humor, & remarkable wealth of knowledge which you share with such clarity & care. It’s been a pleasure & honor to study & train with you." Skinner Releasing Teacher Trainee
"I feel joy, & safe, & comfortable. I’m beginning to understand a new language that uses breath & reaction to communicate. A sense of openness & freedom. No judgment. Excitement."
"It’s great to be relaxed, centered, & be moving quickly at the same time… There is such love to this work – so much caring & connecting." Student, Juniata College
"I’ve noticed a widened range of movement & an increased depth of awareness & experience within the movement…I’ve experienced a real softness & availability in my body. I feel comfortable in uncomfortable movement situations & comfortable in flux. Thank you for creating an open, safe environment in which to experiment/explore. This was a lovely introduction into a fascinating technique, & you’re a lovely teacher."
"I feel whole. I feel present. I feel grounded. Life is simpler through my eyes at this moment. I’m simply here & I have everything I need to live. I can’t explain right now but I feel good."
"The capacity to be present in a softer, more receptive, attentive, listening, careful way seems to be continuing to be with me. Something very fundamental in how I see myself has been stirred & awakened."
"This is the first time I’ve found myself discovering new territories in a smooth, non-struggling manner. This 'unlearning' has not been about fighting myself, but about finding myself."
"You give your amazing grace to whatever you're up to. I have a kinship with you like no one else – I’m guessing you hear this often. It’s possible to reveal one's soul to you without being stepped on. When I was able to move on my haunches like I might imagine an animal doing, I was in the deepest place I’ve ever been in my life in movement. This was so startling to me and so fun and enjoyable, yet mystical and awe-inspiring, and it was done in your presence. You were the clearing for me for this experience of a lifetime. You’re such an enormous part of what I respect in living and life."
"I gained trust & faith in nature in a new way through an experience of integration of body, mind, emotions, imagination & soul on a deeper level than I have ever experienced."
"The work has an uncanny way of addressing, opening up & freeing up my limitations & fears. Also, it has been a great healer for my left knee & a healer for my creative soul."