Release the Hounds is a depiction of dancing through times of crisis. Set on the dance floor of the performer’s psyche—reminiscent of a ballroom or the basement of a nightclub—the spectacle depicts a man who can’t stop dancing. Inspired by the dance marathons of the 1920s and 1930s during the Great Depression in the US and rave culture, both contemporary and Thatcher-era, Release the Hounds is a ballad of the working-class dancer. As they sway on the dance floor, the question arises as to whether they are there for pleasure or payoff. The work explores the sensual and poetic experience of being the last person on the dance floor; an abstract representation of dance as an escape from reality, but also as a means of surviving it.

Inspired by the novel RAVE by Rainald Goetz and the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?, Release the Hounds follows a narrative in which one doesn’t always make ends meet, but in which the work remains clear: the dancer must keep dancing.

Adam Russell-Jones is a dance artist born in the UK and based in Berlin. He began his vocational ballet training at Elmhurst School for dance in Birmingham and subsequently went on to join the Royal Ballet School in London. After graduation Adam went on to join the Stuttgart Ballet. Whilst working with the Stuttgart Ballet, Adam was nominated by the Deutsche Bühneverein for the Faust prize under the category of best performance for his role in Spectre de la Rose by Marco Goecke. In 2017 Adam joined the Nederlands Dans Theater and then the Hannover Staatsballett. Since 2022 Adam has been working as a freelance artist residing in Berlin. In 2025 Adam created his first full length work, Release the Hounds, during Tanztage at Sophiensaele, Berlin, with much critical acclaim. Release the Hounds has been shown at ImpulsTanz International Dance Festival, Vienna, the Southbank Centre, London, and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.