OCT 26

Co-creation—Episode 10, October

Welcome to our tenth episode of Points of Contact, the podcast where we delve into Contact Improvisation with Carolyn Stuart. Each month she shares her experiences, philosophy, and teachings on this unique dance form. This episode focuses on co-creation in Contact Improvisation. 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. 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

28 min

SEP 28

Trust—Episode 9, September

Welcome to our ninth episode of Points of Contact, the podcast where we delve into Contact Improvisation with Carolyn Stuart. Each month she shares her experiences, philosophy, and teachings on this unique dance form. This episode focuses on trust in Contact Improvisation. 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. 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

29 min

SEP 1

Habit and Presence—Episode 8, August

Welcome to our eighth episode of Points of Contact, the podcast where we delve into Contact Improvisation with Carolyn Stuart. Each month she shares her experiences, philosophy, and teachings on this unique dance form. This episode focuses on habit and presence in Contact Improvisation. 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. 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.com⁠Photo by Gregory Bartning

29 min

AUG 8

Come as you are—Episode 7, July

Welcome to our seventh episode of Points of Contact, the podcast where we delve into Contact Improvisation with Carolyn Stuart. Each month she shares her experiences, philosophy, and teachings on this unique dance form. This episode focuses on come as you are in Contact Improvisation, and how this connects to how we are in relationship with ourself and others. 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. Ideas mentioned in this episode: ⁠ Simplicity Adaptability 1) Change yourself in relation to your environment. 2) Change the environment to meet your needs. 3) Combine 1 & 2. 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

28 min

JUN 29

Feeling your yeses and nos—Episode 6, June

Welcome to our sixth episode of Points of Contact, the podcast where we delve into Contact Improvisation with Carolyn Stuart each month. She shares her experiences, philosophy, and teachings on this unique dance form. This episode focuses on identifying your 'yeses' and 'noes' in Contact Improvisation, and how they connect to our felt experience of being present. 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

25 min

JUN 1

7 Options (part two)—Episode 5, May

Welcome to our fifth episode of Points of Contact. Each month, in conversation with Carolyn Stuart we dive into her experience, philosophy, and teachings of Contact Improvisation. Carolyn has spent decades to distilling ⁠seven options⁠ available at the point of contact. In this episode, we cover the last four of these seven options. If you if you have not had a chance to listen to seven options, part one we encourage you to do that before listening to this episode. The last four, of seven options, talked about in this episode are: 4. MOVE YOURSELF Support precedes movement. Assess the support and use it to move. Use the support to roll, slide, push, pull, pivot……….. your own body. Touch to notice how you align yourself with support for ease and oppose it for effort. Touch to play with how you use the point/s of contact to organize your movement. Touch to express, balance, explore, amuse….. yourself. Touch to Adjust For Comfort- AFC and you shall receive! 5. MOVE OTHER Touch with the intent to move your partner. Touch to initiate, to influence and direct your partner’s movement. 6. GO WITH WHAT IS OFFERED Touch to accept being moved, to go with the direction that is being suggested. 7. COUNTER WHAT IS OFFERED Touch to counter what is offered, to not go with the direction being suggested. Touch to counterbalance. Counterbalancing creates structure. Structure creates support for movement. ⁠7 options, by Carolyn Stuart ⁠ CONTACT IMPROVISATION is relational medicine. It is freedom grounded in connection. It is a powerful balm and sublime fun when there’s awareness present and options available for immediate use. It is improvisation. You are the source, filter and framer of your experience. You are the initiator/responder, receiver/transmitter, master/student…… in charge of the ever changing nature of your experience. Commit to caring for yourself and all you are related to! You are an intricate and unique part of a whole. If the whole is not healthy, the parts suffer. Own that you are the one and the all. Pay attention to the lively dynamic of continuously and simultaneously influencing and being influenced. Own your participation in and responsibility to the mutuality of interbeing. Become intimate with gravity. It is the lord of us all, dictating that we are relational. Track the perpetual unfolding of the one and only moment. Notice whether what is happening is beneficial. If it isn’t, explore what else is possible! Use the options to explore ‘spectrums of possibility’ ~such as the range and degrees of effort, weight, speed, tone, surface, space, states, intent, emotion, response, allowing……… Practice, practice, practice….. ever noticing, ever curious, ever responsive “What am I doing? What is my partner doing?”Cultivate spacious attention for the WE of You and Me. Awareness of what is creates safety and defines what else is possible. Track what is and notice if what is is beneficial?If it is not, then use the point/s of contact to change what YOU are contributing.You are half the equation, so changing your participation changes what is! Aspire to a seamless, continuous awareness of what is co-evolving here, now. Commitment to a continuous connection is what unifies the diversity necessary to achieve and expand the capacity for mutual well-being. When we’re aware of what is we don’t need to know where we’re going.What’s next is already becoming, according to our relating to what is. Awareness + Curiosity = Exploration Connection + Options = Belonging + Freedom Participation is Divine! pay attention / tell your truth / listen / ask what wants to happen to care for all those involved

33 min

APR 26

7 Options (part one)—Episode 4, April

Welcome to our fourth episode of Points of Contact. Each month, in conversation with Carolyn Stuart we dive into her experience, philosophy, and teachings of Contact Improvisation. Carolyn has spent decades to distilling seven options available at the point of contact. In this episode, we cover the first three of these seven options. These first three options are: 1. ENTER / LEAVE Touch to leave one point of contact in order to enter another (think walking!). Touch to enter into, to initiate a dance. Touch to leave your partner on their center when you need to leave a dance. Touch to relate to what is. Touch to rearrange your relationship to what is. 2. ASSESS SUPPORT (ideally, this option is a constant that supports exploring all the other options) Gravity is our context. Support is inherent. Touch to be aware of, to feel your circumstance. Touch to assess the existing support. Touch to track the support as it is changing. 3. DO NOTHING Explore non-doing to experience and witness the complexity of being. Touch to simply receive and be received. Touch and do nothing. 7 options, by Carolyn Stuart CONTACT IMPROVISATION is relational medicine. It is freedom grounded in connection. It is a powerful balm and sublime fun when there’s awareness present and options available for immediate use. It is improvisation. You are the source, filter and framer of your experience. You are the initiator/responder, receiver/transmitter, master/student…… in charge of the ever changing nature of your experience. Commit to caring for yourself and all you are related to! You are an intricate and unique part of a whole. If the whole is not healthy, the parts suffer. Own that you are the one and the all. Pay attention to the lively dynamic of continuously and simultaneously influencing and being influenced. Own your participation in and responsibility to the mutuality of interbeing. Become intimate with gravity. It is the lord of us all, dictating that we are relational. Track the perpetual unfolding of the one and only moment. Notice whether what is happening is beneficial. If it isn’t, explore what else is possible! Use the options to explore ‘spectrums of possibility’ ~such as the range and degrees of effort, weight, speed, tone, surface, space, states, intent, emotion, response, allowing……… Practice, practice, practice….. ever noticing, ever curious, ever responsive “What am I doing? What is my partner doing?”Cultivate spacious attention for the WE of You and Me. Awareness of what is creates safety and defines what else is possible. Track what is and notice if what is is beneficial?If it is not, then use the point/s of contact to change what YOU are contributing.You are half the equation, so changing your participation changes what is! Aspire to a seamless, continuous awareness of what is co-evolving here, now. Commitment to a continuous connection is what unifies the diversity necessary to achieve and expand the capacity for mutual well-being. When we’re aware of what is we don’t need to know where we’re going.What’s next is already becoming, according to our relating to what is. Awareness + Curiosity = Exploration Connection + Options = Belonging + Freedom Participation is Divine! pay attention / tell your truth / listen / ask what wants to happen to care for all those involved

37 min

MAR 29

The Point of Contact is the point of contact—Episode 3, March

Welcome to our thrid episode of Points of Contact. Each month, in conversation with Carolyn Stuart dive into her experience, philosophy, and teachings of Contact Improvisation. This episode, about one of my favorite Carolyn saying, "the point of contact is the point of contact". Three questions from this episode are: 1) What are we (you and me) doing? 2) What is being served? Are we getting what we want? 3) What else is possable?

21 min

FEB 27

The impact of Steve Paxton—Episode 2, February

Welcome to our second episode of Points of Contact. Each month in conversation with Carolyn Stuart, we'll dive into her experience, philosophy, and teachings of Contact Improvisation. This episode we would like to talk about how Steve Paxton has influenced Carolyn’s practice of Contact improvisation. Known as the founder of contact improvisation Paxton, passed away February 20, 2024. As a founder of Judson Dance Theatre and later Grand Union, Paxton was instrumental in ushering in postmodern dance. While with Judson, he performed works by Yvonne Rainer and Trisha Brown, among others. Paxton began exploring what would become Contact Improvisation in 1972— through the use of the laws of physical such as friction, momentum, gravity, and inertia as a catalyst for movement. Over the following years, many times Paxton rested the call to become a leader or authority figure for contacting improvisation. Offering this voice as one of may perspectives. Leaving each person to answer what contact improvisation is for them. Read GRAVITY by STEVE PAXTON. In this book, Paxton traces a lifetime in the company of gravity. The memory of his first flight, a meditation on walking, pondering on the conditions of life, and a dream of dancing make up pieces of a puzzle. He reveals the physical force that is affecting each of us and underpins our personal stories. Paxton muses about the limit of his consciousness and celebrates the potentiality of our senses to enter the dance. Leave us a comment below. 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. 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

18 min

JAN 25

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

20 min

TRAILER

Trailer

Hello! A beginning to our beginning. Over the course of this year (2024), I’ll interview Carolyn Stuart once a month. We’ll dive into her experience, philosophy, and teachings of Contact Improvisation. Look for a new episode the last day of each month. 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

1 min

Points of Contact—CI reflections with Carolyn Stuart

Episodes

Co-creation—Episode 10, October

Trust—Episode 9, September

Habit and Presence—Episode 8, August

Come as you are—Episode 7, July

Feeling your yeses and nos—Episode 6, June

7 Options (part two)—Episode 5, May

7 Options (part one)—Episode 4, April

The Point of Contact is the point of contact—Episode 3, March

The impact of Steve Paxton—Episode 2, February

Introductions—Episode 1, January

Trailer

Trailer

Trailer

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