So, with the insight provided by the maestro, I've been revisiting this thing with my knee.
Conclusions:
- women walk in a way that is terrible for our knees. We want our feet to be a needle were balanced on, and it looks lovely in heels, but it causes knee twisty-ness
- crossing my legs is definitely pushing the knee into a bad place. Back to being a good Hewitt girl and only crossing at the ankles for me.
- holy crap are my tendons tight. Only in a hot hot hot shower can I keep my knee over my foot without my knee or my ankle going ballistic. Guess it's time to reinvest in the worst thing about being a dancer ever -- rubber leg-warmers until I can
- build up the strength in my leg muscles that are so underdeveloped, that my well-developed ones are actually pulling the knee out of line.
At least I know what's going on now.