The Underscore

The Underscore is an ensemble movement improvisation score (recipe) developed by Nancy Stark Smith and practiced by many people around the world. It provides a framework for learning to participate in contact improv jams.

What's an Underscore?

The Underscore is an ensemble improv "score" - an improv recipe - with a foundation in Contact Improv. It's like a contact improv jam but with a clearly stated progression and several collaborative improvisation elements, all described in an explicit "talk-through" – a description of the score that is included in the process of becoming acquainted with the score.

The Underscore was developed by Nancy Stark Smith, and is practiced by many people around the world. There is a page about it on Nancy's website .

What's the main difference between an Underscore and a regular jam?

The Underscore is like a contact improv jam but with a clearly stated progression and several collaborative improvisation elements, all described in an explicit "talk-through". The talk-through is a description of the score that is included in the process of becoming acquainted with the score. The talk-through doesn't tell you exactly what to do at any moment, but rather provides a framework within which the group is a bit more coordinated in their agreements and activity than in a jam without this framework.

This framework helps newcomers gain more clear understanding of what they're participating in than they would have in a regular jam, and more clear focus and organization among experienced participants as well as newcomers.

Being acquainted the talk-through is part of participating, and helps the score work well.  The talk-through is frequently available before an Underscore for anyone who hasn't heard it, but also for anyone interested in discovering more in the description.  No memorization is necessary — it's for orientation, and offers interesting insights into the improvisation process. If you're attending and haven't already heard it, please arrange to be there promptly so you can be filled in.

The Underscore structure includes a gradual progression from interior focus to interacting with others. It emphasizes a broad perspective on movement connection, to include myriad ways that we're influenced by and influence others. The score fosters connecting while maintaining a clear sense of self, and can lend an ease of involvement and discovery of wider-ranging ways to cooperate. It's a great opportunity for exploring contact improv and ensemble movement improv based in physical sensation and curiosity, whether or not you're experienced with contact improv jams. 

Providing guidance without penalizing experience

The underscore provides a satisfying situation for those new to the form and to those with experience. It specifically addresses a few needs:

How can we make jams more approachable for newcomers?

Openness and approachability is essential for almost any jam's long-term vitality. Yet a jam is not organized for formal instruction. Instead, people are there to explore what works, and learn that way. Even those of us with the best intentions can't do enough, in a sustained way, to fill in the teaching gaps without sacrificing the opportunity for our own exploration. Yet some guidance is needed by those who might enjoy joining in.

How do we share the expertise useful for navigating contact improv's challenges, without sacrificing play and diversity?

Play and expertise need not be mutually exclusive, but they each can be polarizing if not somehow balanced.

Avoiding some pitfalls

At various times over the years the group has drifted from the structure, at the cost of diminishing the richness that can be such a thrill. Our experience has suggested two key elements that require emphasis for the really nice situations to happen:

Give grazing a chance.

"Grazing" is a stage where everyone is allowing their attention to wander from any connection, returning to their own journey or finding another connection, not staying with a partner more than briefly. One benefit tends to be finding one's own inspiration to move, so that you're not dependent on a partner for vitality. By doing this in the presence of others, you become receptive to and inspired by both yourself and others, not just one or the other.

When even a few people skip grazing, quickly seeking "engagement" — sustained development of a connection with a specific partner — other people wind up jumping to engagement, too, rather than waiting for engagement to find them. Sometimes grazing will quickly fade away in the face of such activity, and the group activity continues as a bunch of tightly held partnerships. The partnerships may change, but the fluidity of inter-connections and a generally prevailing, anything-can-happen vitality that can happen in an underscore is less likely.

In our underscores, when we really explore grazing, the way that people relate to one another — and to themselves — is typically more diverse than when grazing is skipped. Everyone seems more responsive to what's going on in general, and the room as a whole is permeable to interesting changes. Sometimes those changes sweep unexpectedly across the group as a whole, or in little pockets — all suspiciously like an ecosystem in action.

We sometimes suggest, in the score setup, that people hold off on engagement until they have had grazing interactions with half the other people in the room. Even that would be more prescriptive than necessary. It's helped tremendously to just suggest that people not seek engagement, but rather let it find then. To give grazing a real chance, wait for engagement until you find a connection with which you feel compelled to stay.

Stay with this score, refrain from starting others.

While the Underscore is a pretty open ensemble movement score, it is an ensemble movement score. Participants support each other with sustained, focused attention. Starting other activities, like spoken conversations, diverts the initiators attention, takes focus from the score, and can distract everyone in the group.

For instance, a spoken conversation occupies the speakers and tends to call for the attention of those around them, taking them from their movement focus. Everyone's attention is shifted and it's hard to avoid wondering whether the group participation is waning. As with jumping to engagement, once one spoken conversation happens, others follow, and engagement in the score as a group wanes.

Maintaining an improvisation focus which includes both internal and external activity is an extraordinary thing. It is not trivial, and can be quite involving. It's difficult, though, to avoid being diverted by spoken conversations if they're happening around you. So we ask that underscore participants refrain from spoken conversations during the course of the score, instead remaining receptive to what's happening as a participant.