On 22nd and 23rd June, Yeong Wen Lee from Singapore will be facilitating an Underscore practice to familiarize participants with Nancy Stark Smith's Underscore. The practice culminates in a modified Underscore to coincide with the Global Underscore, which is scheduled to happen on the 23rd, from 21:00 to 01:00 (UTC+08:00).
Nancy Stark Smith began developing the Underscore in the early nineties. The score observes states that occur in the practice of contact improvisation and improvisational dance practices and follows the stages of arrival, development, and resolution that naturally tend to occur at contact improvisation jams as well as other improvisational contexts, hence the name suggests the underpinnings of our practice. After the initial "Pow-wow" of verbal check-ins, the score is done generally without speaking until the "Thanksgiving" time of sharing reflections of individual experience.
The Global Underscore is a simultaneous practice of the Underscore around the world. The Global Underscore practice is a slightly modified Underscore. A special "small dance" stand happens during the "Skinesphere" phase, in which each site faces the next site on the path of Underscores happening around the world. A closing small dance stand, facing the other direction, concludes the Global Underscore.
Yeong Wen Lee graduated from Arizona State University with a Master of Fine Arts (Dance) and received an Outstanding Graduate Student Creative Work Award and a Distinguished Teacher Award. He has been supported several times by the Singapore International Foundation – in presenting his work at Bates International Dance Festival, International Dance Festival at Ilan (Taiwan), at the IceHouse (Phoenix, Arizona) and at Buffalo (New York). In June 2012, he participated in a research workgroup at Roehampton, studying and practicing the Underscore with Nancy Stark Smith and other artists.
Yeong has conducted contact improvisation workshops at Arizona State University, Contact Festival Kuala Lumpur, Ilan (Taiwan), Buffalo (New York) and Singapore. He currently works at an organic farm in Singapore, studying improvisation from a different perspective in hopes of discovering things beyond the studio through working a little more with nature.
The framework for the Underscore has been very influential in his practice of contact improvisation, improvisation and in his creative work. He is excited to be facilitating the Global Underscore in Kuala Lumpur, especially as this will the first time that South-East Asia is taking part in the event.
