Unpacking the Underscore

 with Nancy Stark Smith

Workshop Description

An embodied talk-through of the Underscore, a long-form dance improvisation structure developed by Nancy. It has been evolving since 1990 and is practiced all over the globe.

This special event is designed to share the intentions, principles, and practices of the Underscore with people who might not have the opportunity to engage with it otherwise—in other words, not only dancers or contact improvisers but also artists working in other disciplines, as well as other thinking/feeling humans who might find these concepts of interest.  

The Underscore is a framework for practicing and researching group improvisation, integrating Contact Improvisation into a broader arena of improvisational practice. The Underscore guides dancers through a progression of changing states from rest and small, quiet internal activity through more active, interactive dancing and back to rest and reflection. The 20+ phases of the score—each with a name and graphic symbol—create a general map for the dancers. Within that frame they are free to create their own movements, dynamics, and relationships—with themselves, each other, the group, the music, and the environment. Each Underscore is unique.  

Please bring paper to draw and/or write and wear comfortable clothes that you can move in, although the movement segments can also be experienced from your seat.

Video

Biography

NANCY STARK SMITH danced in the first performances of Contact Improvisation in 1972 with Steve Paxton and others and has been central to CI’s development as dancer, teacher, performer, writer/publisher, and organizer. Nancy has traveled extensively throughout the world teaching and performing Contact and other improvised dance work with many favorite dance partners and performance makers, including musician Mike Vargas. In 1975, she co-founded Contact Quarterly, an international journal of dance and improvisation, which she continues to co-edit and publish. Nancy’s work is featured in several books and films, and she has been developing the Underscore, a long-form dance improvisation structure, since 1990. Her first book, Caught Falling, came out in 2008. She continues to explore the bodymind states that are generated while dancing, the life cycle of form as it manifests in improvisation, and how any of this research can be communicated in performance and in print. She graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in dance and writing. www.nancystarksmith.com

Slideshow

photographs by Mandy Kimm and Anna M. Maynard