FM Radio Gods

It's impossible to begin without taking a stand against police brutality, it would be difficult not to dedicate this blog to all my black artists out there who find ways to convey the insidious nature of patriarchal systemic oppression. It may not always be obvious to me that art is political, but it is close to my heart and draws its power from the ongoing fight against injustice.

This write-up has been sitting in my drafts for a while and it's only fitting that I should still express my stance inspired by the #blacklivesmatter protests. At that time, I gave a lot of thought to my indigenous and two-spirited friends. Black trans folks also live through much of the struggles that I would like to see addressed by society as a whole and in that sense they carry a torch which I fully support.

The title is a play on words, it is the name of a prog band I know of. FM as in Fighting Monkey.

I have been doing my best to harness the power of creativity in an effort to remain as sane as possible with a combative energy. I have found this energy in life drawing and Fighting Monkey and while I am feeling the Zoom fatigue, these two activities have provided much needed nourishment.

Our gorgeous model Ivy Berlin @thetallestivy on Insta, was a dream to draw with her calm nature and edgy looks.

Out of all my recent drawings, it is the one I am most proud of, finding a likeness to the work of the amazing Enki Bilal. Our tall and slender model would fit right into this graphic novel author's universe, mingling with sci-fi incarnations of Egyptian deities.

I used charcoal on newsprint for this 20-minute composition.

I can see many anatomical mistakes but also a skillful rendering of the light softly caressing the form. I do try to give myself constructive criticism including positive points, knowing that often, room for a clearer and louder point of view exists.

This is a testimony and a sample of my FM work.

Fighting Monkey with Elke has been good to me, very good. Nothing like task-based dance exercises to create a wealth of new brain connections which can contribute to a holistic lifestyle. It is a technique meant to be experienced with the feedback of a partner's entire presence, but given the circumstances our emphasis becomes on adaptability in the face of profound isolation. The bonds we make over video conference calls while more than valid and extremely powerful, are no substitute for real-life interactions and this is so obvious with something like capoeira or in this case, Fighting Monkey. With the potential of our imagination, we visualize living objects moving through our beings in the hope we will come back to partnered work with new insight.

Elke is a charismatic individual who takes the time to get to know her participants in a very personal way and believes that to express ourselves freely with the body, we should do so verbally. Our group is wise and concise, so we lucked out as far as using these sessions socially.

She loves to explore an ever-evolving dance vernacular and it reminds me of this community when she "mines" for new movements as though working from within an astral network. Of course, the word fluidity comes back a lot. I also enjoy when we are instructed to "arrive" in a position in a very crisp manner.

We can noodle around in our dance but should keep in mind that we are al dente noodles, keeping our entire beings ready for changes in torque.

To describe the work I can give an example of instructions presented before the music starts:

"Let your arms improvise, from the shoulders, to the elbows, to the hands somehow connected together" and after doing this for a spell, "Now let the movement come from the spine as opposed to having the spine follows the arms.”

Instructing Spin classes, I am prone to repetitive movements and therefore overuse. It is said about Fighting Monkey that not only you should improvise by drawing from your very subconscious but you should surprise even yourself. I believe it is exactly what I need to counter the premature aging of my joints caused by movements which my body expects but also the hard cement of the urban jungle.

This is indeed an intricate theory, the idea that varying degrees of complexity in feedback can prevent overuse, and it is one that I love. Further, without a partner the level of feedback is low, which works just as well (temporarily) because you have to dig ever deeper to create kinesthetic sequences that are new. In other words, we often avoid repetition.