Interview with Carolyn Stuart & Patrick Gracewood (2015)
Files
Description
Carolyn Stuart has been inspired by and dedicated to contact improvisation since 1984. Her research and creativity in the art of improvising in contact has spanned seventeen countries, hundreds of projects, and diverse populations.
Recorded for the documentary Moving History: Portland Contemporary Dance Past and Present.
Interview Date
2015
Disciplines
Dance
Rights
This interview is made available through the Portland State University Library Special Collections and University Archives with the generous permission of Eric Nordstrom, Portland Performing Arts Video and is for educational and non-commercial use only. It cannot be reproduced in any form, distributed or played for commercial purposes. For more information, please contact Special Collections at Portland State University Library at: specialcollections@pdx.edu or (503) 725-9883
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18804
Recommended Citation
Stuart, Carolyn; Gracewood, Patrick; and Nordstrom, Eric, "Interview with Carolyn Stuart & Patrick Gracewood (2015)" (2015). Interviews. 3.
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18804
Biographical
Carolyn Stuart has been inspired by and dedicated to contact improvisation since 1984. Her research and creativity in the art of improvising in contact has spanned seventeen countries, hundreds of projects, and diverse populations.
Stuart began dancing in Portland in her youth, continuing through high school and at Portland State University, where she studied dance with Vaunda Carter. She worked briefly as a modern dance choreographer with Jann Dryer’s dance company, but found her creative fascination and direction in contact improvisation, which made unique use of dancers’ physicality and interaction. She began working in contact improvisation in Portland before the form was taught. She began working with Patrick Gracewood in the 1980s in dance jams, exploratory performances, and events, tailoring their improvisation to their audiences and occasions.
Stuart’s mission is to make contact improvising accessible by distilling its endless possibilities into the simplest of terms. The current edge of her investigation is applying the principles of the contact improvisation paradigm—sensitivity, responsiveness, and care for mutual well-being—to life at large.
Interviewer Eric Nordstrom is a dance performer, filmmaker and professor. As a director and editor, his interests focus on the intersection of dance, improvisation, documentary, and film. His past and current film work features such prominent dancers and scholars as Ann Cooper Albright and Simone Forti. In Seattle, he has performed with Karen Nelson, and in Portland, Oregon, was a core company member with Oslund+Company. Eric has taught contemporary technique, contact improvisation, and dance film courses in colleges and festivals throughout the U.S., including Macalester College, Kenyon College, Reed College, Portland State University, Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, Conduit Dance, and The Ohio State University, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts. He is on faculty at Lewis and Clark College.