My year in art 2014 - II

The actual list...

• Catch the Wave contact improv festival in Koh Chang, Thailand, April.

• Exploring CI with some wonderfully curious diploma students at LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore in April.

• Hosting Angelika Doniy in Singapore, April

• SEA Choreolab at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia, May

• Dancing on the MRT with Kai Eng

• Finally getting the groove of festival organisation at Contact Festival Kuala Lumpur 2014, June

• Participating in Retrospective by Xavier Le Roy at Theatreworks Singapore, 25 Sep-2 Aug 2014

• The worst Focus tour I have ever done. August.

• Assisting the rehearsal process for Gitanjali by The Necessary Stage, Aug-Sep

• Seeing Disabled Theatre by Jerome Bel and Theater HORA at the Singapore Arts Festival, September

• Starting off with the facebook networks for Independent Dance Southeast Asia, Contact Improv Southeast Asia, and Singapore Interdependent Dance 

• Getting introduced to London through beautiful weather and the CI Celebrates Chisenhale Dance Space, 13 September

• The Place and the 2014 LCDS Postgrad cohort.

• Seeing To Singapore with Love, Tan Pin Pin at the Southeast Asia Arts Fest London, September

• Seeing the Elixir festival "KnowBody" programme at Sadlers Wells (also my first of many evenings at this theatre): Potato and Memory - Mats Ek and Ana Laguna, The Elders Project - Jonathan Burrows and Mateo Fargion (and a cast of stellar retired dancers), Dominique Mercy in a solo by Pascal Merighi, September

• London Contact Improvisation Jams at Moving East

• Building towards daily ashtanga practice with Hamish Hendry at Ashtanga Yoga London.

• Seeing Idiot-syncrasy, Igor and Moreno, 30 September at The Place

• An intensive workshop on Improvisation into Performance with Jovair Longo and fellow dancers of the LCDS PG programme

• Seeing Pact with Pointlessness, Wendy Houstoun, 8 October at The Place

• Seeing Phyllida Barlow at the Tate Britain

• Seeing Anselm Kiefer the Royal Academy of Arts

• Seeing Plateau Effect, Cullberg Ballet, 13-14 November at Sadler's Wells

• Creating music collaboration projects at LCDS 5-6 December 2014: Loop with James Albany Hoyle, Feet of Bread with Sylvia Lim (Review)

• Choreographic course with Sue MacLennan: A 2 hour silent walk through Tavistock and Kings Cross 

• CI classes with Robert Anderson, October-December

• Beginning Aikido at the Tetsushinkan Dojo at Moving East

• Attending the Crossing Borders lecture series curated by Frank Bock at Independent Dance, notably Meg Stuart, Steve Valk, Andrea Phillips, Sara Wookey, Helen Poynor, Cally Spooner.

• Seeing Paradise Lost (preview), Lost Dog at The Place, October

• CI workshops with Charlie Morrissey, November

• Singing Christmas carols with 200 people in Broughton Castle, December 2014

• Hearing Benjamin Britten's War Requiem on the WWI Centenary at the Royal Albert Hall, performed by the Royal Choral Society, London Philharmonic and Trinity Boys Choir, Evelina Dobracheva, Stephan Rugamer, Bryn Terfel, Richard Cooke, November

• Seeing John, DV8 at the National Theatre

• The London New Year Contact Improv Gathering

What took me so long:

• Are we here yet? Meg Stuart and Jeroen Peters (now reprinted!)

• Getting my own copy and frequently delving into Jonathan Burrows' The Choreographers' Handbook

• Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters (just as I was moving to London and landing in Bethnal Green)

• Properly sitting down and watching the whole of Blush by Wim Vandeykebus and Strange Fish by DV8