The Underscore
June 20th, 2026
Las Vegas, NV - Northwest (RSVP)
June 20th is the Global Underscore 2026! People from all over the world gather to practice The Underscore simultaneously. See below.
3pm-4:15pm Contact Improvisation Fundamentals
4:30pm-5pm Underscore Talk-through / Walk-through
5pm-7pm Underscore (Closed Container)
Facilitator: Angela | Live music improvisation: Serhiy & Felipe
3pm-4:15pm Contact Improvisation Fundamentals
Come explore some fundamental aspects of moving in relationship and in contact with one another!
Contact Improvisation involves dancing with a felt sense of physics, somatic listening, attuned shared weight, mutual following, and going into the unknown together. This is a wonderful space for discovery, mutuality, easefulness, play, and co-creative improvisation.
Language below quoting Casey Loomis of Santa Fe! Thanks to Casey, and Hallie Dalsimer, for the inspiration. Edited for 2hrs, since Las Vegas is holding a shorter Underscore.
4:30pm-5pm Underscore Talk-through / Walk-through
"Though the Underscore has its roots in Contact Improvisation, this space welcomes all dancers & movement enthusiasts, no CI experience required (though it does offer a useful entry point!)
The Talk-Through is a required element for anyone who has not previously participated in an Underscore. It'll provide a map for the journey we'll embark on together. Please arrive promptly!"
5pm-7pm Underscore (Closed Container)
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.)
The Underscore is a closed container; entering in means staying until completion of the score - and rest is welcome as part of the score. It is a commitment to creating this space together.
Supported by donations: $10-35. Soft floor studio, barefoot or socks, comfy long pants.
"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/
