Nancy Stark Smith, fondly known as the mother of contact improvisation, died on the 1st May, 2020.

In celebration and memory of a life that inspired and touched so many, Alyssa Lynes, Sonja Bruhlmann and Mike Poltorak would like to make our documentary -Five Ways In-free to view.

As the International Contact Festival Freiburg owes a profound debt of gratitude to Nancy Stark Smith’s tireless enthusiasm and teaching of the form, Five Ways In in turn would not have been possible without her.

Her underscore inspired the structure of the film. At the beginning of Freiburg 2012 we invited the five protagonists of the film to share with us their seeds or intentions for the week, at the end we filmed the harvest of their sharing what had happened to them. Our edit attempted to do justice to their journeys.

Nancy Stark Smith, we thank you for having helped, inspired and supported our life journeys in contact improvisation.

For more information about Nancy Stark Smith. 

Here is a wonderful video of Nancy Stark Smith describing the origin of the underscore.

Header Photo: Nancy and dancers in a Helsinki, Finland Underscore, 2007.
photo © Raisa Kyllikki Ranta-Click here.