The Underscore
Sunday, June 28th, 2026
Las Vegas, NV - Northwest (RSVP)
3pm-4:30pm Contact Improvisation Fundamentals
4:30pm-5pm Underscore Talk-through / Walk-through
5pm-7pm Underscore (Closed Container)
*If you joined us previously during the Global Underscore, know that there will be new exporations throughout and favorite ones, too.
Facilitator: Angela | Live music improvisation: Serhiy & Felipe
3pm-4:30pm Contact Improvisation Fundamentals
Come explore some fundamental aspects of moving in relationship and in contact with one another! Solo, duet, trio, group.
Contact Improvisation involves dancing with a felt sense of physics, somatic listening, attuned shared weight, mutual following, and going into the unknown together. Nothing needs to happen. There is space here for agency, discovery, mutuality, non-doing, ease, and co-creative improvisation. This is a space for practicing and labbing the dance artsport and open movement improvisation form of CI.
(Thank you to Casey Loomis & Hallie Dalsimer of Santa Fe for Underscore inspiration!)
4:30pm-5pm Underscore Talk-through / Walk-through
Though the Underscore has its roots in Contact Improvisation, it is a long-form dance improvisation structure. I feel it creates space for collective creative emergence. We'll experientially go through the 'map' of the Underscore, as well as some group improvisation ideas!
This space welcomes all dancers & movement enthusiasts, no CI experience required (though it does offer a useful entry point!)
The Talk-Through is required for anyone who has not previously participated in an Underscore, and is recommended for people who have done it before, as new things surface each time!
5pm-7pm Underscore (Closed Container)
The Underscore itself is a closed container; entering in means staying until the end - rest is welcome, witnessing is welcome, not knowing is welcome. It is a commitment to creating this space together!
The Underscore itself begins with settling into the space, setting intentions, then opening into a self-guided collective experience of solo movement, relational dance, and ensemble practice.
We'll emerge 2* hours later to take some time to individually reflect on our experience, and then gather as a group once more, to share our harvests collectively. (*The Underscore is typically 4 hours.)
Supported by donations: $10-35. Soft floor studio, barefoot or socks, comfy long pants.
Background/Context:
Previously on June 20th, 2026, we also joined in the Global Underscore!
"The Underscore, a long-form dance improvisation structure created by Nancy Stark Smith, incorporates Contact Improvisation (CI) into the broader arena of improvisational dance practice. Global Underscore (GUS) centers around a yearly event in which the Underscore is practiced simultaneously for a 4-hour period by people all over the world near the summer solstice (northern hemisphere). 90+ sites participate in GUS.
The Underscore, which has been evolving since 1990, is a vehicle for incorporating Contact Improvisation (CI) into the broader arena of improvisational dance practice; 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 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.
Near the beginning and at the end of the Global Underscore practice, dancers at each site do the Stand/Small Dance (a focus on standing developed by Steve Paxton) together facing the next site around the globe, making an energetic line that spirals around the earth. These are called the Facings."
Underscore Glyphs pictured below! Drawn by Nancy Stark Smith in 2002, with edits for clarity.
Images & Text from Global Underscore website: https://globalunderscore.com/
