Meet Riley Watts–Dd's Newest Contributor

I am so very thrilled to introduce our new contributor! Meet Riley: dancer with The Forsythe Company/fellow Walnut Hill alum/Juilliard alum/artist/intellectual/inspiring lover of life/so much more. I know you will enjoy hearing from and sharing with him as much as I do. Read on to find out some fun facts about Riley and stay tuned to learn more!

1.  ART:  Performance or visual? What place does art have in your life?

I think performance art is visual and visual art is a performative!

2.  CRAFT:  Knit or Crochet or Other? What is your craftiest project to date?

I’m not particularly handy with crafts but I do like to draw. I’ve done a few drawings for t-shirts and I did a big mural on a wall at Nederlands Dans Theater. Unfortunately that’s about as far as my crafting skills go! Someday I’d like woodworking to make an appearance in my life.

3.  DESIGN:  Classical or modern? What designer or architect inspires you the most?

I have to say my favorite architect is a personal friend of mine — his name is Michael Steinbusch. He is a theoretician and professor of architecture in Dresden at the Technische Universität. He works alongside prolific German architect Gunter Henn and has been a part of Motion Bank’s ”Dance Engaging Science” workgroup via The Forsythe Company. He has a great fascination with dance, which he loves to bring into his study of architecture as a conceptual tool. I find him so inspiring because he sees the world like no one else I know.

4.  FOOD:  Salty or sweet? Do you know how to make your favorite dish?

Cheese. I love cheese. I love the powerful French stuff and the solid Swiss gruyere. I like it all. If I actually qualified Kraft Singles as cheese I might say it is the only one I dislike.

5.  THOUGHT:  Fiction or Nonfiction?  What form does the bulk of your own reading and/or writing take?

I like both very much for different reasons. I am unabashedly a big JRR Tolkien nerd and have always loved the imaginative children’s books by the likes of CS Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle. These days I’m more into reading books on the brain and neuroscience because it seems to be coming into focus more for me in my life and I’m trying to understand what it all means. I am also usually carrying around ”Eyes of the Skin” by Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa because it’s small enough in size to fit quietly in my bag and big enough in content to always give me something interesting to think about. I like books that make me think and feel something miraculous.

6.  FUN:  Where in the world do you want to go or be stranded? What five things would be in your bag?

Iceland is one of my favorite places on earth so I’ll go with that. I’ve been there a few times, but I think I am going to need a lot more time there later in life. I’d really like to see Antarctica and also the more isolated northern islands of the world like Greenland and the Faroe Islands, even Jan Mayen or Svalbard. When I travel I always have my laptop, a book, a notebook, iPhone with headphones that will inevitably get broken or lost, and way too many coins from all the wrong countries scattered inconveniently around my bag.