Introductions—Episode 1, January

Each month we’ll dive into Carolyn’s experience, philosophy, and teachings of Contact Improvisation. This episode is about introductions—an introduction to Carolyn, her decades of dancing, and her experience weaving together research on the dance floor with life off the dance floor. Leave us a comment. We are curious about what you enjoyed or found relevant in this episode. We welcome feedback, reflections, constructive criticism. You are welcome to leave a voice memo or written comment, your choice. Resources mentioned in this episode: The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey. A devotee of Contact Improvisation since 1984, Carolyn’s research and development of the dance form spans 17 countries, hundreds of projects, and diverse populations. Her primary teachers have been commitment to the process of exploration and the use of the blindfold. Her mission is to make contact improvising accessible by distilling the vastness of possibility into the simplest of terms. The current edge of her investigation is applying the principles of the C.I. paradigm to life at large. If mutual well-being is possible on the dance floor, then what about off the dance floor too—for the generations to come!  Writings by Carolyn Stuart can be found at: ⁠www.contactgames.wordpress.com⁠ Your host, Eric Nordstrom is a dance performer, filmmaker, and teacher living in Portland, Oregon. He teaches in the Dance Program at Lewis and Clark College and has taught at contact festival Freiburg in Germany, the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, and Conduit Dance. He has performed with Karen Nelson, Keith V. Goodman, and was a core company member of Oslund + Company.  To help preserve Portland dance history, Eric created a documentary film Moving History: Portland Contemporary Dance Past and Present. To centralize and preserve dance history source material, Eric has partnered with Portland State University to create the Portland Dance Archives. He studied with filmmaker Mitchell Rose and choreographer Bebe Miller at The Ohio State University, where he earned his MFA in Dance. For more information about Eric Nordstrom: ⁠www.eric-nordstrom.com⁠ Photo by Gregory Bartning