Back to Knitting

With the whirlwind of the show over (sniff sniff), my life is falling back into the balance it had before. I found that so much dancing was absolutely incredible for one part of my self, but it meant that I wasn’t knitting at all! That was fine for a while, but I’m glad in a way to be back to my little routine. I’ll look forward to the next show, of course, and perhaps be better prepared to make sure I take care of all the little corners of my self in the process.

But there is so much knitting stuff to talk about! This is the year of frogging or finishing unfinished objects for the Yarn Wranglers (the knitting group I belong to), and while I’m not sure I’ll be able to stick to that plan entirely, I’m doing ok so far. I finally (FINALLY) frogged the February Lady Sweater I had in progress that either needed to be restarted or killed. It’s dead. That yarn is all wound up in new balls and will probably be used for Ysolda’s Vine Yoke Cardigan. If I ever get up the nerve to knit a fitted sweater again. I’m considering attacking something more forgiving like Jared Flood’s Inversion. Yummy, cozy, Japanese-inspired drapeyness!

Photos from Context

context, a set by *jenni. on Flickr.

Gathered and in most cases taken by Jenni. Thanks also to Teresa Brazen for taking photos during rehearsal and Seth Bregman for capturing closing night in still images!

Finding Context

I feel a bit like I’ve grown up and become “a real dancer” in the past few months. In 2010, I tried out for Jenni Bregman’s first Resident Artist Workshop (RAW) project Intimate City. I learned a lot from the audition and felt I did well, but Jenni told me I wasn’t ready. Naturally I was disappointed, but kept working hard and enjoying dancing just for the joy of it. But when Jenni told me in the fall last year that she was remounting Intimate City and working on a new piece in a second RAW, I gathered my courage and asked if I might have improved enough to audition. She surprised me by telling me there were a few dancers who couldn’t do Intimate City this year, so would I like to do that? Um…yes! I assumed I would just be in that piece and not the new one, but that proved not to be the case. The blessings kept piling up. Overwhelmed and excited, I joined this as-yet-unnamed company and found myself working with the friendliest, most patient and giving group of dancers (some of whom do this for a living!).

Fast forward to today and we’re more than halfway through our rehearsal time and the show (including Intimate City and the new piece, Context) goes up March 21 and 22nd at the Garage in San Francisco. I feel that I’m more in control of my movement and more expressive. I feel it deeper and give more. In a way, is this what I was meant to be doing all along?

Learn more about the piece and help us make it come to life by watching the behind the scenes video and supporting us on Kickstarter.

Solo Snapshot by Matt Haber

Photo by Matt Haber, November 2010

It’s an amazing honor to have someone document where you are in dance at a particular moment, and to have that in perpetuity. – John Doyle (aka The Creep from Girl Walk//All Day*)

I felt the same way in 2009 when I had my first dance photograph taken (by Matthew Kertesz). The feeling hasn’t diminished despite having done this before. I love doing this and love having a shareable record of that. Precisely where I am with that. It feels like the truest expression of who I am.

This photograph and session were for creating promotional materials for a show we’re working on. More on that shortly.

* By the way, Girl Walk//All Day is a must-watch experience. Warning – you will get sucked in. And Shopping Spree is my favorite episode.

Massive Update

Oh so many things to write about!

1- I got my yarn swift and ball winder in the mail from KnitPicks! The sweet people there even gave me a price adjustment since the swift went on sale a mere 10 days after I bought mine. Hey, 41% off is 41% off!

2- I am only 9 rows (including bind-off) from finishing the Daybreak shawl! I know, what am I waiting for!? Oh, those rows have gotten long what with all the increases so just doing one row takes me a whole TV episode on Hulu. Jeez, that’s a lot of weekend to spend sitting in one place, even if it is raining. So I’m taking it slow, even though I really can’t wait to wear the bugger.

3- The yarn for my secret project arrived and I can’t wait to get started on it. I won’t be saying much about it here since (hee hee) it’s a secret! Will be posting progress notes on Ravelry, though.

4- I asked at Yarn Wranglers (knitting group) about what to do with my poor FLS sweater since the shaping I did was so off and the answer is…rip back. Yup, all the way back to the yoke. I have had my argh moments this week, but now I’m thinking if I have to rip all the way back I might just make a whole new sweater. I mean, I know me. If I have a sweater, it better button all the way up or I’ll just be freezing. I love the color so there’s no question that I want to make the Dream in Color yarn into a sweater still, but maybe a new pattern will be good for my mental state. It’s not like I’ll just be redoing it then. I learned a lot from this first sweater. Now it’s time to do something different.

5- Yarn Wranglers are making flower pins for the SF Ravelry meet-up on May 16th. I’m narrowing down the pattern options and will probably take breaks from the secret projects to whip up that pin so there will be pictures still!

6- Oh, right, dance! Class is fun stuff still (of course) and I got to see San Francisco Ballet do The Little Mermaid in March with Ailey. It was beautiful. Very modern. Hope to write down some thoughts in another post soon (perhaps one with pictures of some of the 5 exciting items above)!

Akram Khan

This week I was lucky enough to see the opening night performance of Akram Khan’s bahok at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and take a master class with two of the company dancers. Jenni sent me the video below and told me I’d love it, which got me excited so we went to the show together after class on Thursday. It was AMAZING. The master class was taught by Shanell Winlock and Eulalia Ayguade Farro at LINES Dance Center yesterday (Saturday). It was definitely intense, but also wonderfully enjoyable. More after the break.

Description of the show from the YBCA page:

Named after a Bengali word meaning ‘carrier,’ bahok explores the ways in which the body carries national identity and a sense of belonging. Eight dancers from diverse cultures, traditions and dance backgrounds—Chinese, Korean, Indian, Slovakian, South African and Spanish—act out their attempts to communicate through dramatic dance and spoken vocabulary as they wait out their airport limbo, their destination unknown. Khan joins forces with long-time musical collaborator Nitin Sawhney, renowned for his multi award-winning compositions, who has created an original score for bahok. Originally a collaboration between the Akram Khan Company and the National Ballet of China, bahok is dance and storytelling inspired by the exploration of cultural identity in a globalised world. (Running Time: 70 min, no intermission)