The Underscore is a framework for practicing and researching dance improvisation that Nancy Stark Smith has been developing since 1990 based on her work with Contact Improvisation.

It is a long jamming/CI/improvisation score that guides dancers through a series of "changing states"—from solo relaxation and sensitizing to gravity and support, through group circulation and interaction, to contact improvisation engagements, then opening out to full group improvisation, and back to rest and reflection.

For the past 11 years, a Global Underscore has been occurring near the summer solstice.

Conceived and organized by French dancer Claire Filmon for 10 years, the Global Underscore Solstice is an annual event during which dancers at many sites around the world practice the Underscore simultaneously.

We hope you’ll join Nancy, Mike and the other Underscores happening around the globe on June 23!

A bit more of technology!

This year we have some special technology components for our connections during the Global Underscore 2012 thanks to the Somatics & Technology conference and to Marlon Barrios Solanos and his dance-tech.net website. Dance-tech.net will be hosting online group that will facilitate a live real time harvests during the Global Underscore as well as live streaming videos from Underscore sites around the world.

In collaboration with DanceDigitalUK

To read the live global blog or to see the live streaming videos, you can simply visit dance-tech.net and view without joining.

http://www.dance-tech.net/group/global-underscore-2012

However, to make a comment in site or post your own streaming video from your location, you will need to join dance-tech.net. It is free.

See instructions below.

There will also be another way to connect during the Global Underscore 2012 through Second Life, a multi-user virtual environment.

See more below.

Remember, you can keep this simple for yourself!

Our suggestion is that you read through these options for the tech components just to get a sense of what’s going on. But please feel free to only participate in whatever level feels interesting and doable for you and your site. Enjoy!

Global Underscore 2012 Coordinators (UnderscoreNYC: Jesse Johnson, Rebecca Bone, Brandin Steffenson) along with Nancy, Marlon Barrios Solano (all dance-tech.net and video streaming) and Isabel Valverde (in Second Life)

OPTIONS FOR PARTICIPATING AND MEDIA SHARING IN THE TECHNOLOGY COMPONENTS of the Global Underscore 2012 (from simplest level to most complex):

1) Share material from your regular Harvest circle

Post your Harvest—text and/or a small selection of photos or a short video from your Global Underscore experience—on the Global Underscore blogspot. Contact Jesse Johnson at underscorenyc@gmail.com to be added as an editor and then you can post directly.
Or, if you prefer, you can send your Harvest to Jesse and the Global Underscore 2012 NYC coordinators after the Underscore at underscorenyc@gmail.com so they can post it for you.

2) Local real-time Harvest
Have a computer somewhere in the space with a Word/TEXT document open (or sheets of paper) for people to write (or draw) during the Underscore. This can be harvested afterward and sent to the global facilitators to include in the blogspot. (Or you can upload them yourself. See #1.)

3) Global real-time Harvest on dance-tech.net

This is a live collective blogging/posting for any individual at any site to enter brief texts or images from their global practice as it happens.

For this option:
1. Your site will need a computer and high-speed internet access.
2. Your site/location (or an individual at your location) will need to join “dance-tech.net” to participate in the Global Underscore blog. It is free (ignore the “donate” prompt, you can enter $0.0; or donate to this good cause!).
After joining dance-tech.net, you must join the Global Underscore 2012 “Group.”
http://www.dance-tech.net/group/global-underscore-2012
[link] This will be the gathering place for our digital Global Underscore inter-activities (live blog, full Underscore sites/locations list, video stream links, etc.)
4. Suggestion: Be sure to do this well in advance! If you have problems doing this, contact Marlon Barrios Solano directly at marlon@dance-tech.net

4) Live streaming video:

This is live video streaming from any/every site/location that can manage it, collected for real-time viewing on dance-tech.net. Click here for detailed instructions.

GO TO DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS PAGE FOR VIDEO STREAMING

5) Global Underscore 2012 on Second Life

For Global Underscore 2012, Portuguese dancer/researcher Isabel Valverde will facilitate a Global Underscore satellite in Second Life, a multi-user 3D virtual environment. Senses Places project will be the virtual host for this Global Underscore site, located at Koru Island in Second Life. (Koru Island is provided by Wellington Institute of Technology.) SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Koru/219/226/4027

At this special location on Second Life, avatar Underscore participants and audience will join the Underscore practice from different remote places around the world. Also at this location, the Ustream video channels from Global Underscores worldwide will be screened for viewing and possible interaction.

There will be a Ustream channel streaming the Second Life Global Underscore site at Koru Island. That stream will be embedded on the Global Underscore 2012 Group page on dance-tech.net along with all the other site videos.

For further questions, contact Isabel at isabelv63@yahoo.com

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Screenshot from SLprovided by Isabel Valverde

IMPORTANT NOTES

FOR GLOBAL UNDERSCORE PARTICIPANTS:

• You do not need to be a member of dance-tech.net to view the videos.

• You do not need to post your own streaming video in order to see other ones.

• You DO need to be a member of dance-tech.net to write into the live global Harvest blog on the Global Underscore 2012 Groups page.

• You DO need to be a member of dance-tech.net to post your streaming video channel there.

• You do NOT need to do any of these things to participate in the Global Underscore 2012! (But it could be a fun extra feature this year to try if you can.)

• Don’t forget the Idiot Button! (If things get too complex: simplify.)

And Enjoy.