A Day of the UNDERSCORE with Anne Cooper

March 28, 2026
Sliding scale: $60-$160
 
1101 N State Street - Aikido Peace Education Center aka „the dojo“

This day can be booked in combination with Deepening - Contact Improvisation Series with Carmen and Rajendra Serber on March 29

Registration

Schedule
9:00 Open Space
9:30 Talk thru with guided physical exploration
11:45 Lunch

1:00 Underscore practice
4:30 Clearing arts

The Underscore was developed by Nancy Stark Smith in the 90's. It is a spacious experience shared by the participants which can spark surprising kinesthetic and compositional improvisation and Contact Improvisation within this defined framework.

In the morning session we'll unfold, expand & compress the Talk-thru, physically exploring a few phases to embody a connectivity to the physicality & function of how these phases enliven the whole of the score. There will be time for questions and wonderings.

Phase: Distinct stage in a process of change or development, often representing a temporary, observable, or measurable point in a longer timeline. 

I invited Anne as she is studying and practicing the Underscore for many years. She spent time with Nancy on 4 retreats working with/researching the Underscore, before Nancy passed away. When I first witnessed Anne talking through the Underscore, I could feel how all the phases she had been describing immediately landed deeper in my own felt sense understanding of the practice. Anne can truly represent the Underscore in an embodied way through practicing the practice for many years.

When I asked her to write something about what insights or other meaningful endeavors this practice has invoked in her over time, she wrote me this:

"I think the Underscore is a meaningful practice for people that enjoy, see the value of it and have fun when they go deeply into something, appreciate duration & who have a little bit of an appetite for a serious practice. I don't really want to try to sell this beyond what it is, I feel the practice itself is profound."

Anne Cooper has danced with EDAM since 1994, studying Contact Improvisation with Peter Bingham and performing in EDAM's work both structured improvisations and choreography. She has researched and performed with Nancy Stark Smith through Nancy's 'Glimpse performance installations' + Community Underscores (research, performance installations, participation & facilitation of the Underscore) in the USA. Anne has taught/facilitated contact improvisation (CI) at EDAM (Vancouver, BC ) by invitation of Peter Bingham in 2001 and in other locales through classes, Jams and workshops.  She has created and performed her own work and has danced with many Canadian companies/choreographers. Anne has trained in contemporary dance and contact improvisation; her CI teachers include Peter Bingham, Jaci Metivier, Nancy Stark Smith, Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, Ray Chung and others and some study with Steve Paxton (Material For the Spine) and recently, Nora Hajos (Material For the Spine) and Daniel Lepkoff. Anne is grateful to live and work on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations 
(' Vancouver, BC' ).