November Underscore in Berkeley

Underscore in Berkeley. November 17th. Sunday, 2024 FACILITATED 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. No absolute beginners, please! 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 community over the years. Also unlike a jam, in Underscore we arrive together and leave together. Participants stay for the full 3 hours of the practice. More info on Underscore at the bottom of this description. Event details: Underscore Berkeley Sunday, 1/12/2020. 3-7pm 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: $12-25 sliding scale 3pm- There will be an introduction and talk through of the score. If you are new to Underscore or need a refresher please come at 3pm. 3-3:30pm- Arrival time for participants who don't need the talk through 3:30pm- 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.