Jozef Frucek is of the most inspirational movement teachers I have encountered and Fighting Monkey is an incredible practice. He was on fire in this interview. We were all over the place with too many ideas thrown out to track completely.
Fighting Monkey and Evolve Move Play are very similar conceptually and contain many similar elements, with the differences arising partially from our different movement backgrounds, as well as our personalities and philosophies.
One of the key ideas in movement practice and indeed in life is the balance between form and formlessness. When we create order and structure we give ourselves a scaffolding to work from and a goal to work towards but we constrain our options, constrain what we can perceive, how we can act. Conversely, with formlessness the potential is limitless but direction is difficult. The biggest difference between FM and EMP seems to be in the balance found here. The Fighting Monkey practice leans towards formlessness, to the way of having no way, whereas EMP focuses more on trying to articulate an optimal structure. This theme I think runs through our whole conversation, while touching on many specific aspects of practice and movement philosophy.
Specific topics covered include:
1. The balance between the movement practice and bringing in new elements
2. Jozef’s 40/60 rule
3. What is the right “why” for movement practice
4. Heroism and meaning
5. Effective and efficient practice vs. diversity and variability
6. How to develop creativity in movement practice
7. The Heroic archetype and The Iliad and Odyssey, balancing Achilles vs. Odysseus
8. Why you should listen to other people less and listen and to yourself more
9. How we need space and time to allow the development of a practice
10. Jozef’s teachers and background
11. The importance of rhythm; my approach to conceptualization of rhythm for parkour and Jozef’s ideas on how to develop rhythm
12. Why we need to start with improvising, with acting out the thing we want to do
13. Why you want to be a street rat not a lab mouse
14. Specialization vs. general movement practice
15. Longevity and motivation
16. Why the game is more important than the tricks
17. Key things to study to support your movement practice
Enjoy and drop a comment with your thoughts on formlessness and form, and the pursuit of meaning and in movement practice, or question about any specifics we covered.
