The Underscore

The Underscore is a framework for practicing and researching dance improvisation that explores the question: How do we, with our individual and collective energy and imagination, weave together and perform an unknown score?

The Underscore provides a ground for changing states – from quiet, internal releasing to high-energy interactive contact dancing, symbolized by more than 50 Glyphs.

Underscore NYC, with the ongoing support of Movement Research in NYC, has been deepening this practice developed by Nancy Stark Smith for over 15 years, with a focus on creating an inclusive and welcoming space for individuals of all abilities and backgrounds in the city. The Underscore is taught by Luce Mahler with co-facilitator Nicole Touzien and sound score facilitator Adam Lempel.

Please note: Global Underscore is taking place on Saturday, June 20. Participants are asked to arrive on time and stay for the full duration from 10am – 1:30pm.

The suggested donation for The Underscore is $15 – $20, payable via Cash and Venmo. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. The Underscore Facilitators will be taking care of registration prior to the session.

For Underscore-related questions, please email underscorenyc72@gmail.com.

Upcoming Underscores:

GLOBAL UNDERSCORE: Sun, June 20 at Eden’s Expressway, 537 Broadway
- The Global Underscore is a yearly dance event in which dancers at 90+ locations around the world practice the Underscore simultaneously. Claire Filmon proposed the idea of a global Underscore to Nancy Stark Smith in 2000 from a desire to connect dancers all around the planet to dance and compose together simultaneously. This year, here at Underscore in NYC, we feel especially moved to bring planetary connection and love together in a Global Dance for Peace, for all countries, for Gaza and for Indigenous cultures and Peacemakers around the globe protecting life on MOTHER EARTH!
- Global facilitators this year are Nicole Touzien and Luce Mahler.

Past class

Faculty

Luce Mahler

Luce Mahler BFA, LMT, is a nonbinary dancer, muralist healer, and 2 time cancer survivor and more recently a differently abled dancing body. She has taught dance and directed mural projects internationally in Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Europe, and the States for the last 4 decades. Her dance practice is anchored in Authentic Movement and Skinner Releasing Technique, becoming certified with master teachers Aileen Crow AM and Joan Skinner SRT ~ practices she brings to her creation of the "Urban WONDERscore," her classes of Contact Improvisation and over the last decade coordinating Nancy Stark Smith's Underscore for Movement Research, Global Underscore and for UnderscoreNYC. Dance communion, inclusion, and celebration of our unique and creative diversity in age, race, gender identity, and expression, body shape, size, and differently-abled bodies, breaths the life force and creates the wonder in every WonderUnderscore! She is one of the organizers of the CONTACTCUBA annual festival in Havana. And is also the author of the adult children's book, Lucy Be.