PortlandDanceArchives: Touch Monkey, Carolyn Stuart, Patrick Gracewood: For The Next 60 Seconds 1995

Concept and performance by Carolyn Stuart and Patrick Gracewood
Performed at the West Coast Contact Improvisation Festival, circa 1995

From Points of Contact (contactgames.wordpress.com/about/):

Touch Monkey is a perspective in Contact Improvisation that has grown out of the dancing relationship between Carolyn Stuart and Patrick Gracewood over 25 years.

Carolyn Stuart has been a devotee of Contact Improvisation since 1984. Her research and development in the art of improvising in contact has spanned 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.

Patrick Gracewood is a professional artist. As sculptor and dancer he’s interested in the intersection of movement and stillness. A strong sense of play influences his art and his dance. “Through play is how I learn and create.”

For more Portland dance performances and artist interviews, please visit the Portland Dance Archives, Portland State University Library Special Collections: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/pda/

This recording is made available through the Portland State University Library Special Collections and University Archives with permission 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