Belated update

Long time no see, eh?

Things have been really busy around these parts lately. I hate how whenever one leaves off writing in a blog for a long time the resulting post ends up being a big, uninteresting list of things done over the preceding period of time. I’d rather just tell you all about interesting little episodes, projects I’m working on and the like.

I started a new job working at Dance UK and Youth Dance England in December. The good news is that it’s the best job ever, but the bad news is that it sucks up a lot of my time and makes it hard for me to sit down and write about what I’m doing.

I’ve worked in non-profit arts for a few years now, but dance is new to me, so it’s been fun spending time immersed in the project of learning everything there is to know about British dance. Work takes me to lots of interesting places, like Royal Opera House, above, or the dance science lab at Trinity Laban, below.

Though lately I’ve mostly been in the office, snowed under with work. Right now we’re working on the UK’s largest-ever dance conference which is a hell of a lot of work, but also pretty exciting.

I’ve been taking a class on the Poetry of Place at Poetry School with Roisin Tierney on Monday nights, which is one of the highlights of my week. I’m constantly impressed by the work that my classmates bring in, and the feedback on my works in progress has been very helpful.

I’m also taking lindy hop classes at Swing Patrol London, which is super fun.

My new Sunday project is learning to spin on a wheel. It’s a lot of things to think about all at once, but I’m gradually improving. Today the weather was warm enough that I was able to do some spinning outside. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom and it was nice chatting with random neighbours and cats who stopped by to check out what was going on. I think another couple weeks of working on it and I will get it down.

I’m thoroughly enjoying springtime in London, seeing the world very rapidly get a lot less grey. One surprise has been how friggin huge bees are in England. This one was over an inch long and very fat. I have no idea how it manages to stay in the sky.