Permission to Play — with Sten Rudström

After a weekend of working with voice, movement and mind in Freiburg, I sat down with improviser and teacher Sten Rudström to talk about permission to play—and the thoughts that get in the way.We begin with the mind, meditation and a small experiment on my couch, before following Sten’s path from sport and science into performance and his long relationship with Ruth Zaporah and Action Theater™. We explore intention and intensity, seeing and being seen, and what changes when practice becomes part of everyday life.We also talk about teaching with insecurity, finding home, and the responsibility of carrying a teacher’s work forward. The conversation ends with sadness, recognition and making use of the life we have been given.Recorded in Freiburg after our October 2026 workshop. Conversation in English.ABOUT STENSten Rudstrøm is a Berlin-based improviser, performer and senior teacher of Action Theater™, the body-based improvisation practice developed by Ruth Zaporah. Working with movement, voice and language, he explores presence, spontaneous expression and the habits that shape how we respond. He has worked with Zaporah since 1986 and teaches and performs internationally.Sten’s work: https://www.stenrudstrom.com/Host: Štěpán KnetlConversations with Gravity: https://conversationswithgravity.org/Subscribe in your podcast app: https://anchor.fm/s/11841a398/podcast/rssChapters00:00 Introduction00:31 Welcome — permission to play02:21 The mind and meditation10:01 Sport, science and finding performance13:28 Finding Ruth and recognizing his own value16:58 Judgment, acceptance and calling23:04 Support and independence25:42 Language, science, seeing and sensing48:14 Slowness, intensity and learning58:18 What makes a practice; returning to the body01:05:23 Contact and improvisation01:09:02 Improv and people supporting people01:12:17 Art, spirituality and teaching beginners01:18:41 Family, Berlin and finding home01:25:31 Quick biography — to your couch01:26:09 Teaching with insecurity01:30:41 The body and attention of the teacher01:33:53 Ruth, sadness and using this life

How do the assumptions we carry shape the way we dance, connect, and understand one another?Dancer and improviser Maya Schwartz shares her path into dance and Contact Improvisation, opening a conversation about belonging and how we meet each other.We talk about the shared space of the jam: responsibility, technique, boundaries, and saying no. From there, the conversation moves into community, what we choose to share or keep private, and how identity and politics enter our encounters—on and beyond the dance floor.Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:16 Beginning the conversation
02:10 Finding her way into dance
09:39 Early Contact Improvisation
12:55 Yoga, meditation, and belonging
21:17 The space of the jam
26:27 Responsibility on the dance floor
32:33 Technique, floor, and space
41:40 Saying no
48:10 Moving, reading, and staying
54:36 Freiburg and community
01:00:53 Sharing and privacy
01:02:03 Identity and politics
01:14:03 Ending with hope

Why do you dance? In the first episode of Conversations with Gravity, I talk with Anna Grünberg, a physiotherapist and my Contact Improvisation teaching partner in Freiburg. We talk about touch, listening through the body, staying connected to ourselves while meeting others, and making room for emotions, attraction and ego in the dance.