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Underscore in Berkeley. February 23rd. Sunday, 2025FACILITATED by Vitali Kononov
NOTE: This event is only for those familiar with the general tenets of contact improvisation practice. Underscore does not provide minute-to-minute instructions. You should be comfortable with no external guidance. Instead, you are encouraged to find your own sources of inspiration internally, as well as interpersonally—with other participants.
No absolute contact improv beginners, please! You should be at least familiar with consent practices and be able to take care of your physical and emotional needs in most situations (negotiating physical touch, weight exchange, improvisational dynamics, and articulating boundaries).
What is Underscore? Like a CI jam, it is a self-directed experience. Unlike a jam, we share a specific map (or 'score') to anchor participants' experience and create a more cohesive and focused practice space. This map was developed by Nancy Stark Smith and the global community over the years. Also, unlike a jam, in Underscore we arrive, begin, and end together. Participants stay for the full duration of the practice. More info on Underscore at the bottom of this description.
Event details:
Underscore Berkeley
Sunday, 2/23/2025. 2.30-7pm
Finnish Hall Auditorium
located at 1970 Chestnut St in Berkeley (near University/Sacramento) just a few blocks from the North Berkeley BART station.
Suggested Fee: $15-25 sliding scale
2.30pm—There will be an introduction and talk-through of the score. If you are new to Underscore or need a refresher, please come at 2.30pm.
3:00pm- Opening Circle with Everyone.
Doors closed, full group Assembly.
**Please be on time and prepare to stay for the full duration (ending 7pm).**
The Underscore is a long-form (at least a few hours) dance improvisation structure developed by Nancy Stark Smith. It has been evolving since 1990 and is practiced all over the globe.
The Underscore is a vehicle for incorporating Contact Improvisation into a broader arena of improvisational dance practice; for developing greater ease dancing in spherical space—alone and with others; and for integrating kinesthetic and compositional concerns while improvising. It allows for a full spectrum of energetic and physical expressions, embodying a range of forms and changing states. Its practice is familiar yet unpredictable.
The practice—traditionally 3 to 4 hours in length—progresses through a broad range of dynamic states, including long periods of very small, private, and quiet internal activity and other times of higher energy and interactive dancing.
There are 20+ phases of the score—each with a name and a graphic symbol—which create a general map for the dancers. Within that frame, dancers 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, providing rich and often inspiring experiences of the human and artistic phenomena of dance improvisation.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Berkeley Finnish Hall, 1970 Chestnut St, Berkeley, CA 94702-1723, United States,Berkeley, California
