TOWARDS UNDERSCORE
– A pathway into the heart of Contact Improvisation
Starting October 2025
This October, I invite experienced movers to join a program designed to deepen their practice and explore the heart and essence of Contact Improvisation through Underscore.
Towards Underscore emerges from my journey as a professional performing dance improviser. It is designed for those interested to dance from their authentic source, more grounded in an aligned body, to embody movement with meaning and conviction, and to experience the profound joy that comes from being fully present and available within the dance.
THE PROGRAM weaves together 6 weekend workshops on Contact Improvisation with 6 alternating online somatic sessions. This structure creates the space and time needed for deep, transformative development in your dance practice. Throughout the period, we'll ground ourselves in the pioneering work of Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith, honoring the original intentions and practices of CI. By focusing on substance and essence, we cultivate quality and gain confidence in being personal about our movement exploration, returning to the core principles that make CI so powerful.
The program works towards 'The Underscore', which Nancy Stark Smith (one of the founders of Contact Improvisation) developed by researching CI many years. Underscore is an open yet clearly defined framework for practicing and researching dance improvisation, giving both depth and breadth to your dancing.
IN THE WORKSHOPS, we'll dive into various aspects of Contact Improvisation: increasing movement abilities, letting go of the need to impose our will on our bodies, and developing the mindset of an experienced improviser. Past participants speak of having more clarity, confidence, more possibilities and, most importantly, more of themselves in the dance.
THE ONLINE SESSIONS cultivate a profound and personal relationship with your body through somatic approaches inspired by Body-Mind Centering, Feldenkrais, and Chi Kung. We'll go into the nuanced sensations of weight, internal support, spatial awareness, alignment, centering, and more - nurturing presence and deep trust in our physical intelligence. This embodied knowledge transfers to the studio practice, enhancing the primary instrument—the body.
The sessions are a somatic foundation which directly support the program's intention, creating dancers who move from their authentic source with meaning, conviction, and profound presence.
REGISTRATION:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeTAWsNfP9yi0D2MwuZLIYXbX6HG4HD9Uwmt2Ancpwykw6BFw/viewform?usp=sf_link
PRACTICALITIES
Dates of the workshops
18/19 October, 22/23 November,
20/21 December., 24/25 January,
28 Feb, 1 March, 28/29 March
Location: 's Hertogenbosch
Price range: 900-1200 euros depending on your income.
Pay in installments is possible. Lower income discount available for three places of 100 euros. More info on my website. If not satisfied, after the first two you can get your money back minus 150 per weekend. After that no refund possible anymore.
REGISTRATION:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeTAWsNfP9yi0D2MwuZLIYXbX6HG4HD9Uwmt2Ancpwykw6BFw/viewform?usp=sf_link
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