Editorial Shoot with Ashna Khan: Gallery
When I first came to Pakistan in 2018, I had the opportunity to shoot with award winning photographer Ashna Khan. We worked on the concept together. Here are the images!
Manifesto 2018
No to being a Changemaker No to leading as Leader No to stigmatizing the normal No to being a Savior No to focusing on impact No to seeking followers and views No to drama No to questioning and analysis No to hope and expectations Yes to presence Yes to local Yes to intuition Yes to…
An American Dancer in Pakistan, volume 7
In all my blogs thus far, I’ve focused almost exclusively on dance, which is partly because that’s obviously what I do and what I’m here for, and partly because I wanted to showcase that in Pakistan, of all places, there is lots of art, dance, and performance. I’ve tried to stay away from getting political,…
An American Dancer in Pakistan, Volume 6
Beginnings are easy to write. At that point it’s just impressions, first thoughts and ideas, things are different like this, life works like that. But once I’m in the middle, I lose my words. I don’t know what to write anymore, what to tell you that I haven’t. Life dwindles from the initial sightseeing and…
An American Dancer in Pakistan, Volume 5
Me being here raises eyebrows and turns heads. It’s strange to be here, strange to be onstage, strange to be out on the streets. I’m used to the staring, and used to being the only foreigner. It occasionally gets uncomfortable, such as one meal in the walled city of Lahore when the group of guys…
An American Dancer in Pakistan, Volume 4
Before I came to Pakistan, I really had no idea what I was going to do. Of the four months I was initially planning to stay, I had one week of schedules, and a few nebulous half-possibilities. I just had the word of a friend, and my own gut feeling, that there was something to…
Who Am I in This City?: Leaving Seoul for Lahore, Part 2
“Do you think you actually changed in Korea? Or just sharpened?” During the course of a lovely 2-day wellbeing retreat with Recipes for Wellbeing in Lahore, we made something called a wheel of wellbeing. There were a number of factors to consider, such as mental/emotional needs, social and environmental, physical health, finances, personal growth, and etc. We…
An American Dancer in Pakistan, Volume 3
The studio space for the Wahab Shah Dance Company is not very easy to find. I was called to rehearsals to join the troupe performing Norwegian folk dance for a conference in Islamabad, and besides the initial “what the hell??”, I thought it seemed like a great idea. I researched the address as much as…
An American Dancer in Pakistan, Volume 2
Stories of an American dancer/choreographer spending 4–5 months in Lahore, Pakistan working to expand the nascent contemporary dance scene. In production Adnan’s house is the house of an artist. It is not a show house — there is no dedicated sitting room or hidden kitchen where the cooks prepare food. What might have been a…
Who Am I in This City?: Leaving Seoul for Lahore
In South Korea, there are certain paths that everyone follows, or is expected to follow. From dating to business, from family to friends, from fashion to haircuts. There is a Way to do things. A Way to speak. A Way to treat someone who is older, or younger, or superior in position, or inferior. There…