DIVE IN

Undercurrent classes investigate the vigor, mechanics, and efficiency of floorwork with care, curiosity, and precision. While exploring fluid ways of moving low to the floor, practitioners use the architecture of their bodies to make challenging movement smooth, strategic, and strengthening. Undercurrent believes in the longevity of dance and aims for this method of floorwork to be as physically sustainable as it is innovative in its vocabulary. The practice supports movers of diverse backgrounds and skill sets in balancing and conditioning their bodies while adding versatility to their movement toolsets.

DROP-IN classes
at Fremont Abbey

OPEN/INT
6:30-8:00 PM
Mondays

ADVANCED
9:30-11:15 AM
Wednesdays

Open-level/Intermediate eases into efficient fundamentals, builds muscle memory for inversions, and cultivates a floorwork flow at a downtempo pace. This class is designed for folks with an active movement practice (martial arts, yoga, waacking, etc) who want to gain more comfort moving low to the floor and learn tools for injury prevention. It's also a great space for those with extensive floorwork experience to condition, redefine old habits, and workshop their skills with a gentle, unhurried practice. These classes offer a co-taught experience by Alethea Alexander and Hilary Grumman to attend holistically to the space, information, and students.

Advanced is an uptempo practice led by Hilary Grumman for those with ample floorwork experience to play with the rigor, flow, and range of this technique. The first half of class offers a constant stream of movement to warm the body, juice the joints, discover new pathways, and cultivate both a personal and community practice. As classes progress, the foundations grow into more complex sequences, inversions, and tricks, culminating in a choreographic phrase that incorporates the themes of each session.

Cost + Registration: Come as you are! Pre-registration is not required for our weekly drop-in classes at Fremont Abbey. The cost is $20 via cash or Venmo @danceundercurrent with low-income and BIPOC scholarships available. All workshops and retreats have limited space and are priced separately.↓

Intro to Floorwork Workshops offer thoughtful, sequential skill-building in our floorwork technique. Over a few consecutive weeks, we collectively build a solid foundation in movement vocabulary essentials, focusing on strength, safety, and progression toward the confidence and familiarity to support participation in our intermediate class flow. Stay tuned for the next one, coming early 2025!

One-on-one Sessions are a fast-track way to deepen your practice, strengthen your foundations, and hone in on the movements you are most interested in nurturing. These sessions are tailored to your individual goals, cost $100/hr, and can be scheduled via email: divein@danceundercurrent.com

Retreats offer an opportunity to leave the city, soak in the natural beauty of the PNW, and immerse yourself in dance. Thank you to everyone who joined us this September for our retreat with Ballet Rituals with research space for pleasure, full-body activation, and rigor. By threading together high and low spaces, we allowed ballet and floorwork practices to co-inform one another through core concepts: reach, loft, spiral, stack, skeletal ease, and muscular efficiency. We can’t wait for the next, coming in Spring 2025!

Traveling Workshops provide a deep dive into floorwork through energetic efficiency, biomechanical safety, and fluid choreographic sequencing. Interested in having us lead a workshop in your city? We would love to connect!

Safety for All Sessions:

⤷ Wear soft layers that are comfortable to move in and cover your whole body, especially shoulders, torso, shins, and feet.

⤷ While our approach to this technique is rooted in injury prevention, low-impact strengthening tools, biomechanically researched pathways, and physical sustainability, it is still a rigorous movement class. Enter at your own risk.

OTHER MOVEMENT CLASSES AROUND SEATTLE IN 2024: Check out our live doc for various open and advanced classes that fellow professional dancers are loving. Additions always welcome!

SEA YOU OUT THERE!

ABOUT US

Undercurrent is a Seattle-based dance organization dedicated to creating and experimenting with floorwork technique, biomechanically sustainable movement practices, experiential design, music videos, immersive performances, interdisciplinary collaboration, and care-centered community building.

Undercurrent offers varied floorwork classes, from an all-ages community practice to advanced technique for professional dancers. Drawing on floorwork training with Piso Móvil, Flying Low, Psico-Físico, RUBBERBAND, Jorge Crecis, Ihsan Rustem, Adam Barruch, Moving Air, Duela-Cemento, A Surprised Body, CONTINUUM, Austrian Parkour, and 13 years of personal floorwork research, director Hilary Grumman continues to fine-tune a thoughtful and thorough technique that can be taught from the ground up. Within this practice, movers learn conscientious and functional mechanics and nurture muscle memory to care for their joints while experiencing the rush of floorwork flow, complex inversions, and unique tricks. Originally founded in 2017 by Hilary Grumman, Liv Fauver, and Ashley Jade, Undercurrent has been solo-directed by Hilary since 2019. In 2023, it grew to include Seattle-based artist, pedagog, and community organizer Alethea Alexander.

Since its founding, Undercurrent has led weekly classes year-round at Fremont Abbey. Undercurrent is also currently taught at the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts as well as through workshops at art and activist organizations globally, including New York City Center, FIDCDMX Ciudad de México, Mark Morris Dance Center, Peridance Center New York, AWID Forum Brazil, Mosswood Hollow Retreat Center, The Dance Complex Boston, Bodies of Empowerment SF, and Velocity’s SFD+I. We host additional learning and community-building opportunities through collaborations with touring artists, such as Nicole von Arx, Ground Grooves, Lavinia Vago, Elia Mrak, and RUBBERBAND dancers. We have created and performed new dance works for CO– Seattle, Actualize AiR, Sessions in Place, The Round, Ode at Mini Mart City Park, Studio Current Sessions, Starbucks, music videos, and more, often collaborating with artists from other mediums to shape an immersive environment or perspective for audiences.

MAKE WAVES

If you have any questions or ideas about collaborations, classes, workshops, performances, experiential design, or other endeavors, reach us at DiveIn@DanceUndercurrent.com or on our Instagram, @danceundercurrent.

We look forward to diving in with you!