From Crystal Pite’s “Dark Matters”
This weekend I saw perhaps the best dance performance I’ve seen live, Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM perform Dark Matters at On the Boards (great video here!) and take a master class from the company at Velocity the next day. It was incredible to experience choreographer Crystal Pite’s movement on my own body, awakening my elbows, armpits, and ankles as viable dance options! And now my job is to turn the experience of the weekend into words for my internship–quelle énigme !
I’m The SunBreak‘s first intern and having to quickly adjust to the fast-paced world of journalism (the world of online journalism, at that) as well as the differences between academic and “real-world” writing (mainly, rather than expand and take your time, it’s ‘be concise and get it done). The magazine is a watering hole of sorts, where Seattlites who maybe interested in a political issue might come across some dance writing they might not otherwise spend a moment with, and vice versa. My first piece was an interview with Amy O’Neal, a choreographer I had studied for my summer research (applications for which are due March 9, by the way!), a whole different kind of writing than I’ve done before–picking out important pieces from the conversation, re-ordering and making a story out of it:
Photo by Gabriel Bienzycki for Amy O’Neal’s “The Lowdown”
And then it was onto the next piece, the next show. I’m getting a taste of the life of a dance critic.
I must say, my life right now finally feels (almost) balanced. I believe it’s largely due to two of my classes are largely self-guided, and I’m able to set my own pace: the English Internship and an Independent Art Study (for which I got to design the syllabus–how cool!) I feel like I’ve got one foot on campus, with a meal plan and Diversions, I’ve got one foot in Seattle, where I’m planning to move in June. While I sometimes ask myself, why am I not planning something more adventurous like a post-graduation trip to Europe or a biking trip across the country? (as I have known friends to do). But then I think, settling somewhere is adventurous… and I’ve got to start setting up shop to start paying back those student loans.
In conclusion, even though I’ll need to figure out a way to generate an come June, my body’s seriously sore and I’ve got some serious reading to catch up on for class, I’ve got a plan A to attempt and taking the perspective that this is (at least for a while) the last semester where I’ll have “reading to catch up on for class,” overall I’m feeling pretty blessed.