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Real People Online: Leigh Witchel, Part 1

© Suzanne Griffith

Leigh Witchel is a dancer, choreographer, knitter, and knitwear designer. He has a ballet company, Dance As Ever, in New York City, and he writes about both ballet and knitting. When he first joined the KnitList about three years ago, it exploded! Some of you were there, and I know you remember Leigh's pungent prose and double-entendres. I've been wanting to know more about him ever since, and I was delighted when he agreed to an interview.

This article coincides with the second annual Great Knitter's Raffle and Auction, to benefit Dance as Ever. Leigh's Internet knitting friends have contributed, as he puts it, "an array of items ranging from luxurious to demented," such as a cashmere cap knit and signed by Lily Chin; a fair isle cap by Ann Feitelson, author of The Art of Fair Isle Knitting; a replica of a scarf worn by the Dalai Lama; and Avital Pinnick's miniature bag. There will also be gift certificates, patterns, and other services to be won by holders of the winning raffle tickets, including - ahem - a hammertoe operation. The auction runs on the website from July 1 to September 19, 1999.

Leigh, a lot of people know you from the KnitList, and after I arranged to do this interview, I asked my LYS owner, Amanda, what she would like to know about you. She said she'd like to know about your background. Could you tell us something about your personal history?

I grew up in Mamaroneck, a suburb to the north of New York City, and lived there until I was 15 and went to college. I went to Brandeis University, dutifully telling my parents that I wanted to study to be in the foreign service, and knowing full well what I actually wanted to study was theater. When I was cast as the lead in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, I was supposed to be graceful, and was anything but. Someone suggested I take ballet. I had always wanted to, but literally didn't even know how to go about trying to learn. By the second class I had decided that this was what I wanted to do, even though I knew even at that point I didn't have a natural aptitude for it. In fact, I probably loved it because of that, as well as because it made me feel so elegant and noble.

School came easily to me; I had already figured out how to make passable grades with the minimum of effort. The lack of any sort of syllabus for acting at Brandeis also disillusioned me; people left after four years training looking pretty much as they did when they entered. With dance training, there were concrete skills to master, and one practiced them on a daily basis. My first real job was working for a defunct software firm near Brandeis after graduation. I had to leave for ballet class by four pm, so I had to get to work by 8 am, ostensibly. Usually, I'd pass out from exhaustion in the middle of the day. On one occasion I awoke to find my friend attempting to drop small wadded paper balls into my open mouth.