The Global Underscore 2012 at University of Chichester
Saturday, June 23, 2:30–6:30pm (UK time)
at University of Chichester, West Sussex, UK
photo: Raisa Kyllikki Karjalainen
Nancy Stark Smith (facilitating)
Mike Vargas (music)
The Underscore is a framework for practicing and researching dance improvisation that Nancy has been developing since 1990 based on her work with Contact Improvisation. It is a long jamming/CI/improvisation score that guides dancers through a series of “changing states”—from solo relaxation and sensitizing to gravity and support, through group circulation and interaction, to contact improvisation engagements, then opening out to full group improvisation, and back to rest and reflection.
For the past 11 years, a Global Underscore has been occurring near the summer solstice. Conceived and organized by French dancer Claire Filmon for 10 years, the Global Underscore Solstice is an annual event during which dancers at many sites around the world practice the Underscore simultaneously.
Nancy will be hosting/facilitating one site of the 2012 Global Underscore as part of the Somatics and Technology Conference taking place at the University of Chichester, in Chichester, UK, on Saturday, June 23, 2:30–6:30 pm. All dancers with previous experience with Contact Improvisation and with the Underscore are welcome to apply/register to participate. It should be a very special Underscore!
Embedded in the Somatics and Technology Conference (http://somaticstechnologyconference2012.com/), the Chichester Global Underscore will take place in an unusual and fascinating context. Nancy will give an Underscore talk to the conference participants on Saturday morning to offer some preliminary background and outline the basic structure (Global Underscore dancers are welcome but not required to attend). Later that day, the Global Underscore practice will occur, with live music improvised/composed by Nancy’s longtime collaborator, musician Mike Vargas. The Chichester Underscore will be danced by improvisers from London and elsewhere who have had previous training in Contact Improvisation and the Underscore. There will also be a special technological component with a worldwideweb link-up. The event will be open for observation by conference participants.
After a brief reception following the Underscore, Global Underscore dancers and observers are welcome come out together for an evening meal in a local restaurant.
We hope you’ll join us and the other Underscores happening around the globe on June 23!
To register for participation in the Global Underscore, send email with a brief description of your background with CI and the Underscore to Lalitaraja j.lalitaraja@roehampton.ac.uk.
Global Underscore fee: £15, (£10, for conference participants, limited places)