Our Team for GUS 2024:

You! We are currently looking for people who want to help with organizing the Global Underscore in small or large ways: hosting the “Catch-All” Zoom virtual site (this is our biggest need right now!), supporting new facilitators in different countries, website updates and maintenance, developing maps and the Facings (how people connect around the world), social media, new ideas, etc.

Patrick Crowley started studying Contact Improvisation in 1984 at Hampshire College, then did an intensive with Nancy Stark Smith and many other CI teachers that same year. Patrick began studying the Underscore in an intensive with Nancy in the summer of 1990, the year she discovered the Underscore as its own practice. Since 2008, he worked very closely with Nancy on many dance projects, including the January Workshop at Earthdance, Glimpse projects, the Northampton Underscore +/- group, and community Underscores in Western Mass. He has been a GUS site facilitator since 2007 and on the GUS coordinator team since 2017. Patrick has a background in contemporary dance, somatics, bodywork, yoga, meditation, improvisational theatre, performance, and sacred ritual. He has taught internationally at universities, dance centers, festivals, and healing arts centers.

Sarah Young has collaborated with and performed works by dance makers Nancy Stark Smith, David Dorfman, Jill Sigman, Hilary Easton, Stephan Koplowitz, and the Treehouse Shakers. She was the Executive Director of Earthdance, Plainfield, Massachusetts, USA, from 2013–2018. She had her first Underscore Talk-Through with Nancy in 2011 in NYC. Since then, she has participated in Glimpse 2, January Workshop 2020, and the Northampton Underscore +/- group. She has been been a GUS site facilitator since 2015 and on a GUS Coordinator since 2020. She became a Feldenkrais practitioner in 2015 under the direction of David Zemach-Bersin, NYC. Sarah is an Alum of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, BFA 2003, and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Morocco 2008-10. She currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts and Stolzenhagen, Germany.

Colleen Bartley started dancing Contact Improvisation (CI) in 1994. She first studied with Nancy Stark Smith in 2005. She is the co-coordinator of London Contact Improvisation team and co-organised a monthly Underscore Practice for many years she also created the CI UK website and continues to maintain it. From Nancy’s invitation, Colleen co-edited Contact Quarterly’s newsletter until Nancy’s passing in 2020, and she continues to edit for CQ’s Rolling Edition and Unbound. She joined the GUS team in 2020 and supported the online In-Depth Talk-Through, the Catch-All (video conferencing) Underscore, and the Meta-Harvest. She lives with an invisible disability, which informs all her work. Colleen is particularly interested in dance and social justice — and making dance accessible and inclusive.

Nicole Touzien is a lifelong arts advocate living in Brooklyn, NY. She currently serves as the Executive Director at Dancewave, a nonprofit dance education organization and community hub for artists, educators and young visionaries participating in advocacy efforts and social change movements. For the past ten years, she has worked to advance the mission of renowned NYC nonprofit organizations charged with stewarding open green spaces, promoting youth development and championing arts education. Nicole earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance from Texas Woman’s University in 2009, and has served as facilitator, faculty, guest artist and performer across the United States and in Mexico, Canada, Ireland and South Korea.

Nathalie Baumann is GUS’ dedicated and wonderful social media extraordinaire. She lives in Basel, Switzerland and is often supporting CI and Underscore events with her partner, Monique Kroepfil.

Erica Skye Roper helped with the Facings and was general support especially in the days before the GUS 2024 practice. She is avid Tango and ConTango dancer and teacher and has been very focused on the Underscore in the last two years. Erica lives in Florence, Massachussets USA.

Nancy Hughes is a GUS Advisor, and was a Catch-All coordinator with Colleen Bartley from 2020–2022.

Brandin Steffensen is a GUS Advisor and Graphic Meister.