UNDERSCORE Workshop with Penny Chivas
Saturday 7th September 2013
2-6pm
At Kinning Park, Glasgow
£12
Our very own Penny Chivas offers us a workshop in the Underscore, which she learned from it's creator Nancy Stark-Smith earlier this year! Practiced all over the world, this workshop is a chance to learn this fundamental approach to CI through discussion and guided practice.
Each year there is a world-wide Underscore and next year we would like to be part of it!! Should it prove popular we will also run regular Underscore sessions as part of the @TheGlasgowJam programme. See below for more details about the Underscore.
To book your place email us on theglasgowjam@gmail.com
What is the UNDERSCORE?
The Underscore is a practice developed by Nancy Stark-Smith in the early 1990's as a response to the changes of state she and others perceived during contact jams and classes. It is a form that is practiced all over the world and facilitates a greater sense of awareness and then also discussion about the changes and shifts that can take place during the time in the studio.
An Underscore traditionally starts with a brief talk through of the score (a set of rules or guidelines which the dance follows) as a refresher, or, for those completely new to the practice, a talk through of the entire score, usually about an hour.
The Underscore and all its symbols are mapped out and placed on a wall of the studio and can serve as a guide for the group. In doing so, a greater sense of self-responsibility can be encouraged. "How much time do I need in each state in order to warm-up, am I streaming, overlapping skinespheres, or in my own skinesphere, or do I pressing the idiot button in order to simplify simplify..." The underscore can serve as a guide to notice and to discuss.
The Underscore is recommended for people with some experience in contact improv and pens and paper are needed for each talk through.
What to expect from the workshop
Penny will lead participants into an understanding of the Underscore through explanation of it's format, symbols, rules, etc and through a practical exploration of it. This will be a physical improvisation workshop in which Penny offers this particular frame as a way of engaging in your own practice. During the workshop you will be given the tools to understand how to engage in an Underscore anywhere in the world and a chance to run it in order to experience it first hand. It is recommended that you bring a notebook and pen / pencil with you.
A note from Penny
Having recently returned from Nancy Stark-Smith and Mike Vargas' workshop in Arlequi, Spain, I am keen to facilitate this work back in Scotland. I am well aware myself that for the first few times the Underscore may appear as an exclusive "club", or that we may well spend a great deal of time looking at the symbols rather than actually dancing and I would really encourage people to come try in September, let the information settle and then return again to the work later. The Underscore is a guide rather than a series of pseudo-mathematical symbols!!!!
