DANCING THE UNDERSCORE IN A WORLD OF SOUND

with Nancy Stark Smith,
with Mike Vargas (music)

May 6 (Wednesday evening) – May 10 (Sunday afternoon)

A workshop designed to focus our study of Contact and Improvisation through the Underscore, a long score for jamming/composition/contact/improvisation. The Underscore guides us through a progression of "changing states" of body and mind—from solo sensitizing to gravity and support, into group circulation and Contact Improvisation engagements, opening out into whole room compositional awareness and interaction, and back to rest and reflection.

Combining our practice of Contact Improvisation and the Underscore with the pleasure and discipline of detailed listening to sound, we will move with many species of live and recorded music to develop conscious, varied relationships between what we hear and how we move. Through the phases of the Underscore—alone, in contact, in groups, in silence, and with live music—we'll study physical and energetic changes of state, natural composition, presence, and relationship, enhancing the pleasure and awareness in our dancing experience.

For movers with intermediate/advanced level experience with Contact Improvisation.

Nancy Stark Smith first trained as an athlete and gymnast, leading her to study and perform modern and postmodern dance in the early 1970s, greatly influenced by Judson Dance Theater breakthroughs in NYC in the 1960s. She danced in the first performances of Contact Improvisation with Steve Paxton and others in 1972 and has since been central to its development as dancer, teacher, performer, writer/publisher, and organizer. She travels worldwide teaching and performing Contact and other improvised dance work with many favorite dance partners and performance makers including Karen Nelson, Julyen Hamilton, Andrew Harwood, Peter Bingham, and musician Mike Vargas. In 1975 she co-founded Contact Quarterly dance and improvisation journal, which she continues to co-edit, produce, and publish. Her writings appear in the book Taken By Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader, and her first book, Caught Falling, with David Koteen, was released in 2008. She lives in western Massachusetts.

Mike Vargas began playing music in 1959.  His curiosity and love of collaboration have led him through many contexts and cultures, from cocktail lounges in Indonesia to New York's Lower East Side, from cancer wards to the Kennedy Center.  He started specializing in music for dance in 1978.  He also works internationally as a freelance composer performing, teaching, recording, and improvising.  For the past 9 years, he has been teaching and performing with Nancy Stark Smith.  He has released 6 CDs of his music and is currently on the faculty in the dance department at Smith College.

Total Workshop Fee = Tuition + Room & Board.

Tuition (4 Tiers Available):
   Student Rate: Economically challenged students and the unemployed: $205
   Regular Rate: Employed but struggling (teacher, librarian, lots of kids, etc.): $235
   Professional Rate: Actually contributing to your retirement plan (support the arts!): $265
   Contributor Rate: Contributing additional funds to support the Earthdance Scholarship Fund:: $315

Standard Room & Board: $175 (For commuting or alternate housing options, click here)
Deposit Required*: $75

Early Registration Discount: $35 off if registered by April 10th.

Arrival Wednesday, 5/6, after 5 p.m.
Last session ends Sunday afternoon 5/10

Partial Scholarships are sometimes available for Earthdance workshops. Please click here for more information.

To register for this workshop, please call 413-634-5678. A $20 late fee will apply to registrations after May 1st.

*You will not be officially registered until we receive your deposit. If your registration is cancelled up to 3 weeks prior to a workshop, you may either transfer the entire deposit amount to another event or be refunded 1/2 of the deposit. Cancellations within 3 weeks of the start date are not eligible for a refund or transfer.