19-24 October 2026 – 6 days, 4 hours per day
Ponderosa, Germany (near Berlin)
For registration and organisational questions and information you can go directly to this page of Ponderosa.
For who?
To participate in classes from the Ongoing series of SRT, prior experience of SRT is required: all 15 classes of the Introductory series, preferably multiple times. When you apply, please write about your experience with SRT or contact Lily Kiara directly.
As the classes build on each other and with the desire to offer this experience at Ponderosa to a whole group from beginning to end, the workshop is open only to those who can participate the full 6 days, rather than in individual classes.
Imaginative Process
In the Ongoing series we may experience further through our dancing selves that there are skies beyond skies. It offers the possibility to have a deeper experiential understanding of what this may mean in our creative process, in ourselves, in our being.
At the end of each SRT class we allow time to write and/or draw. In this workshop there’s time for further discovery through what comes up in the writing, or in what has not yet been danced in class. Some dances come quickly, immediate, others ask for more uncovering. In the resonance of the Ongoing class we can play with allowing the mystery or to demystify some parts of the creative process. There can be moments of stillness, of dancing, of writing, drawing, of dancing together. There’ll be time for open space and also for gently guided sessions.
“To make something well is to give yourself to it, to seek wholeness, to follow spirit. To learn to make something well can take your whole life. It’s worth it.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) is a visionary approach to dance and movement training, developed by Joan Skinner (1924-2021); a detailed, refined and expansive technique. It is designed to find greater ease in our dancing and dynamic alignment with our environment. It is a refined tuning with ourselves, our bodies and imagination.
The teaching strongly draws on guided imagery and hands-on partner practices, supporting an experiential understanding of both the technical and the creative process in movement. There is an ongoing fine tuning in allowing ourselves to consciously fall into unknown creative territories. We allow ourselves to be intimately in touch with our inner body as well as align with something greater than ourselves through embodied listening. As we move with imagery that guides us through different layers of the whole self, the imagery can begin to move us, which among other things can bring an immense sense of ease to the dancing self. The poetic imagery can attune to physiological layers and includes the mystery of intangible layers present.
Embodied listening, inner spaces, presence, dynamic stillness, softening and allowing are some of the essential areas of practice in Skinner Releasing (other than release), that support action into newness. Softening supports the releasing of strength through efficiency and responsiveness. Allowing encourages listening, in this practice to one’s own dancing first. This way we can become more available. In the technical work and in creating dances, directing and allowing are side by side, as are stillness and action, receptivity and fierceness. Joan Skinner says: “Letting go is a discipline”. It is a continuous practicing. Giving up something in order to give in.
You can read more about my teaching on this page.
For registration and organisation please go to this page of Ponderosa.
Note: please bring layers of clothing or a large shawl for your convenience and material you’d like to use to write or draw.
Lily Kiara danced her first improvised performance on invitation of her dance teacher at the age of eight. She started her professional training at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam (1990-1994), at Bennington College and Movement Research in NYC. Further on, Skinner Releasing Technique, martial arts and training in improvisation as autonomous live performance art with teachers such as Julyen Hamilton and Lisa Nelson have greatly influenced her work and evolving vision. Attending concerts and working with improvising musicians for many years play an important role in her learning. The work with her late Javanese teacher Suprapto Suryodarmo continues to inspire her on numerous levels. She has been making work for over 30 years.
Lily Kiara has been offering classes and workshops in Skinner Releasing Technique and Improvisation for over 25 years, sometimes together with a musician or light designer. She has been teaching at independent studios, festivals, academies and art institutions throughout Europe, USA, Australia and Indonesia and also guides artists in their process of making their own work. She works as a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist and also is active as a folk singer-songwriter, solo and with her band The RIVER.