Community Underscore

Had the opportunity to participate in a community underscore today led by Nancy Stark Smith (contact improv pioneer) and Mike Vargas (musician partner who played haunting mixtures of piano, loops, baby toys). My final undescore of 2010. A lovely culmination of a year of many contact imrovisation-inspired moments.

We began by facing London, England (NE) at 2:50, precisely the time a group of dancers was facing us! We danced for three hours. It was epic. I sat out for a brief time to rehydrate and take pictures, but I couldn't really capture the vast, layered, energetic and aural landscape. People in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, men and women, young and not so old. People I have known for years and years, people I met this year, people I met dancing just today. I shared a surprisingly yummy dance with the young man sitting against the mirror in this photo. I've never seen him before and didn't expect him to be so present, graceful, fluid and connected. One of my most memorable dances of the day.

I danced in trios--Liz (my friend from waaaay back in college who I woke up thinking about today, but had no idea I'd be seeing!), Merrill and me. We were like mystics casting spells. Me, Chris (bearded man who once showed up at nono underscore on a night it was cancelled, but I was there and MaryAlice asked him to come in, and we ended up dancing with only bike lights and a seminal psychedelic record on), and Virginia, (new to me). I did a lot of drifting between engagements, lifting and being lifted, mostly in flow, but friendly with the occasional "gaps." To think Nancy made this remarkable score up with glyphs for prescriptions and descriptions! We did 21 claps to close in honor of winter solstice and the lunar eclipse. As I clapped with the 50 or so other participants I had one of those recurring "I can't believe I get to do this" contact moments.