Transcript
Speaker: Hey, y 'all. Thanks for tuning in on 11 -11. I wanted to record this intro for Thank You Ancestors podcast. This is episode two with Crystal Luwaiwai Daniel. Crystal is a sister guru friend. Crystal has been my Filipino martial arts teacher now for almost 10 years now and I'm so excited to bring you this episode. um We delve into topics of dance as prayer, as meditation, um as a sacred space, community,
Speaker: um and so much more on their healing journey and also learning about the Philippine, pre -Philippine healing arts. So take a look when you get a chance and I'll catch you on the flip side. Bye. So yeah, Crystal, thanks for coming to the talks. You've been here so many times.
Speaker: And hopefully by the time this comes out, I will have edited the awesome video that you would sultry, recorded of you dancing. Just freestyling. Freestyling, wearing these coveralls. It was really cute. Was it last night, right? Oh yeah. Last night, Yeah, that was really great. um So yeah, we can...
Speaker: You can start at the beginning, you can start at the end, you can start in the middle. Like, what do you feel like talking about first? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, let's, let's see. So, um, maybe I'll start with a more recent stuff. So you have a show coming up here in Chicago. It's so recent. It's in the future on November
Speaker: sos twenty October October 20th, yeah. About three weeks to a half weeks. Happy Filipino American History Month, y 'all! It's our month! Yeah, so we're filming this on October 1st. Your show is on the 20th. Where is it? um It'll be in Lynx Hall sometime around 6 p .m. We're figuring out the details and we're just sped up. Yeah, it's gonna be a remount of a performance I had about a year and a half ago.
Speaker: with a Filipino cast curated by H .L. um at Lynx Hall. H .L. Dorello. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, and I was in the night performance with Kiam. And so, yeah, it was a really good night. It was really talking about our processes of how we grieve. And so my performance actually was a combination of small performances I've built throughout the decade. And I'll just came together. So like it touched a lot about grief, but not I guess are the most traditional sense of what the grief would look like through performance and dance. But I use it through communal ritual, communal ritual through movement and maintaining memory through movement. Okay, got it. So
Speaker: Yeah, and I have my ode to house. I have my ode to monums of the 20s and 30s and the history of our monums coming through in the Tansy Dance Hall here. Ooh! And yeah, just connecting it all through my journey of movement through house and Filipino martial arts. House music. Yes. Yes. And yeah, and you know, the recent deaths of Mike, my loved ones. So it's, you know, my brother, Flia Chris,
Speaker: after him, my sister, Larissa, and then Groobate, it was right after Larissa. So 2021 was a big grief. And that actually just spun me into a lot of, just a lot of processing um and a lot of travel. It brought me through a lot of travel, meeting a lot of people outside of Chicago to understand what my movement feels like and is currently in the moment.
Speaker: so
Speaker: So that's coming up October 20th. That's so exciting. And um is it part of a showcase or? For this one, Linx Hill just hit me up and i was like, let's re -watch your performance. Okay. So your performance is the only performance going on then? Yes, yes. So nice. Yeah, it's exciting. So yeah, I'm actually still thinking about workshopping with what will I actually want to do. And when I performed that first piece, it was actually after my brother's second death anniversary. So it was really fresh with what I was processing. So I'm trying to understand what it is to feel now performing those particular pieces. And trusting the process of what whatever will come up
Speaker: Do you plan to work with um the same crew as before, like, or different different folks for the mounting? Yeah, yeah, right yeah, yeah. The lighting.
Speaker: you like the the light Oh, cool. Yeah, so. Nice. Okay. The lighting is choice. Yes. The costumes. The costumes is, yeah, I mean, I think I'll be, I'm trying to see if I can switch things up. So we'll see. Yeah, yeah. It's another opportunity to evolve that piece. yeah So like, if you have the bandwidth, like, why not? Yeah. Like revisit, because that was a moment in time. And it came from that certain context. And now we're in a new context. Exactly. So like,
Speaker: You know, ah I'm curious, like, what you feel the piece could maybe be responsive to in this current moment. Yeah, that's what I'm working on. Yeah! I'm like, there's so much going on in the world. Like, I mean, obviously, just like with Palestine and la Lebanon and um obviously in our own diaspora, there's always things evolving.
Speaker: um being in the occupied Turtle Island and these elections coming up. It's kind of a lot to - An environmental weather patterns and everything that's happening. Climate change. Climate change is a lot. It is a lot. Well, I wish you the best of luck with that. Thank you. And I can't wait to be there.
Speaker: you be be I'm going to be right in the front. I'm coming back from Rhode Island just to see your show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be back from Rhode Island in the morning. And so I'll have some time to like nap and like recover myself a little bit, but I'll be there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So exciting. um And so this piece that you performed at Lynx Hall in 2022,
Speaker: 2023, April 23. 23? Okay, so last year. um Was that the first um performance that you had done at Lynx Hall? or I'm just curious how it is in your like career of being an artist. I had the chance to perform at Lynx Hall back in 2011. Okay. Honeypot had a collaboration of many different artists throughout the city. I'm forgetting this one.
Speaker: But Boogie McLaren and Avery Young, that's a performance. The poet laureate of Chicago. Oh my God. Yeah, that was a really special performance. And Devon Crosby, I believe, was the one who actually put us all together. And that's like, I mean, I moved back to Chicago after my underground tour.
Speaker: so two thousand and ten and na was a lot of like wide -eyed. I'm so excited to be back home. I'm older than when know and left for Wisconsin for undergrad. At that time I was really exploring movement and dance. You went to Madison, right? Yeah. But in 2011, yeah, that was one of my first Chicago performances.
Speaker: I was really excited about it. But that was, a Link's house was, where it? It was in Wrigleyville, before they changed locations to where it is now. It was in Wrigleyville. Okay, yeah yeah. You've been with them through the locations. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, nice, nice. Wrigleyville's changed so much, hasn't it? Just like, you go there and it's like, am I in a mall? It's really wild. Especially during Christmas.
Speaker: Oh yeah, Christmas is like Christmasville there. I mean, which is cool, but like, it's a lot. The character of the neighborhood has definitely evolved. um Yeah, let's have a little drink and a little snack before we go into the next topic, unless there's something you want to add about your performance on October 20th that you didn't get to say.
Speaker: I'm trying to have music afterwards, so there might be a dance party afterwards. Okay, okay, okay. I'm projecting that out there. Yeah, you're looking for a DJ or? Oh, okay! I already have it. My mom is James Vincent of Excursions. You're Mahal? Yeah. No, I'm sorry. You're Mahal of all many different victims. Oh, very cool, very cool.
Speaker: I'm excited. Actually, you have to journey with him in -house music since 2007. Oh, very cool. He moved to Chicago at the same time. Oh. He moved back to Chicago from New York, and I moved back from Wisconsin. At the same time. I met at the double doors at the Silver Block party after party. Shout out to double door. Yeah. R .I .P. double door. Yeah. And yeah, that was 2010, and that brought me on a journey through house and of Chicago really. So yeah, so that's my Mahal and we hopefully will have him play right after. So some ideas to talk about next would be your Filipino martial arts practice, kind like history if you want. How does that feed into your show?
Speaker: Um, also you spent a lot of time in California recently studying. I don't know if you want to talk about that and like healing journey, like becoming, I don't know if you had have always thought of yourself as like a healing practitioner. I don't know how would you characterize yourself as a healer or a student of healing arts? What would I say? Um, sometimes I switch it up. I think each phase or wherever I am has informed me of like when to call myself a healer. I don't know. It's just some, at the very beginning I would say healer, but then as I learn more and more, I'm just like, I don't want to say that, you know, community will call me what they feel called to call you. Yeah. Um, yeah, because at the very beginning when I found out about Bye Bye Land, I started calling myself a Bye Bye Land. And I was like,
Speaker: You know, but also that was also reflected to me in the house journey. You know, Boogie McClan was a very big, very big part of my life in the journey of house and dance, but house and dance was really a reflection of where I am in my life and my womanhood, my personhood, o my spirituality, my queerness, all of that came up through house.
Speaker: But the topic of like, what do you call yourself, or you know, whatever, came up with like a conversation about like, when you get excited, you want to start teaching dance classes, or you want to start teaching house classes, whatever. And I remember I was like, only 2011, 2010, when I started, I started my house house running around until 2009. So it was around 22 at that time. You know, I got so excited, I was like, yeah, I'm gonna start teaching, you know, whatever. And then I just remember boogie looking at me like,
Speaker: too soon. You know, as a teacher, as someone who's lived it. Yeah. You know, who am I to come in, right? So that's like ah what another form of colonizing, right? Like, oh, I discovered this. Right? Like, you get excited. So I was say i'm thinking about my violin, right? Right. 2009. I started hearing more about my violin. I was an undergrad. I was in Wisconsin, doing research. I was majoring in arts with an emphasis in art.
Speaker: emphasis in Asian American studies. And I did all my art, you know, according to my identity. And when I was learning at that time, at that time, I was like, researching and I found this book of poetry and they kept saying my violin and I was like, what is that? And then you dig some more, you get a rabbit hole. All of a sudden, I come across the work of Lenny Strobel. And 2009 was about that time when the first conference of the violin was coming out.
Speaker: And I hear some of my sister fans are going, I think Clarissa, you know, was it like sister older sister friends? But like major homies also. You know, that we're going to this and, you know, I'm here in Wisconsin just trying to make those in a performance art class, performance for the screen class, and I was like, well, I can't go, but I'll make some art, you know.
Speaker: And it made me feel like, well, what is about the by -by -life that I feel so connected to? And so the topic of healing came up, so 2009.
Speaker: And that that really was like how I tried to understand myself through how, so every time I went out to dance, I prayed to by -by -life, I prayed to all the people. It was never a time where I was just like, I'm gonna go out And it really got like irritating to me when folks were like, oh, she's ah she's always clubbing. She's a party girl. And I'm like, this is so much deeper than houses.
Speaker: o like can you can you like I would love if you kind of like build that bridge a little bit more, because like I could see where somebody on the outside would be like, oh, Crystal goes to the clubs all the time.
Speaker: you know, they're a club kid, right right? But like, if they're not knowing this level of like your prayerfulness and your spirituality approach to this physical art form and this dance form with this music form, like all together in the same place, like, yeah. It's very layered. um You know, dance has always been It's just have always really important to me. It's just my form of communication, my form of release, understanding myself and my relation to others.
Speaker: um And I think, you know, yeah, I was a big girl. I was into, you know, just learning everything I could. I learned through B -Boy Anachron back in the day. Like I was a long time ago, right? I'm taking classes from them. Oh my God, at like the old town school. Yeah. But my brother too, he's nine years older than me. He was a B -Boy and he brought me to Jams. and But he introduced me to a community that was really like bridging the spirituality and hip hop together, indigenous art.
Speaker: you know And so to get that exposure at a young age, like high school, and bringing that with me to college while I'm away from family, like a lot of, I will say I'm really grateful and fortunate to come across the mentors, the people, the elders, the big sisters, big brothers, yeah who have continued to really dig into their practices and healing for me to see that in practice as a young person.
Speaker: and then bring that now into what my passions are. And so throughout the time of coming into 2009, my first house event was Ron Trent and Theo Parish at Gosh, what was that? That was, um, Wabash, what was that called? Oh, Hot House. No, no, no. Actually, the Hot House, my only entry point to that was seeing Mango Try. And I was like, I want to be a Mango Ash. Shout out to Mango Try forever. Um, but no, that was in high school. But, uh, what am I, gosh, what's that? It was, they closed down, they opened up around 2009. It was on Wabash State, um,
Speaker: Why am I here? Buddy guys? No. Somebody out there knows. Hold on, let's go look up. Yeah, in two minutes you're gonna be like, oh my God, it's this. It had the coup d 'etat and the... Damn. I'm tripping. Anyways. It's all good. It's okay. But before that, my exposure to the house was like battles and because it was coming from the B -boy B -girl perspective. And then when I went to this, I said, this is house. By the way, did you see the...
Speaker: Olympics. I didn't really watch it, to be honest. I saw snippets from like folks, friends, like posting things of who they wanted to give props to. And I obviously, I think we also, you know, beat girl from Australia. Shout out to beat girl from Australia. Social media really just the long balance of you. But yeah, now while I look at this spot, it'll come to you. It'll come to you.
Speaker: Uh, but no, just to have those layers, right? So undergrad, I was all about the Asian American studies and Filipino identity and my arts and my learning about Bailan and then going out to these dances, um, William McLaren brought me under her wing at this, you know, at this time, especially. And I would not see House any other way. You know, it's House is liberation. House is a story of people, of time, of your struggles try ah
Speaker: of worship and follow fellowship, me of time prayer, of time to release, of time to really just be. And that space was very moist. It was moist enough for me to have the seeds that I planted as I was dancing be really nurtured. And the people I met, I caught my chosen family.
Speaker: who, you know, I i mentioned already, Larissa passed away after my brother passed away, and Larissa was, she was, she actually, I didn't know, but we the conversation we had before she passed, actually, she was like, I've always watched you. Not worried about you, but I wanted to make sure you were safe. So it's like, I've always had that chosen fam, but it's,
Speaker: So interesting that we travel and journey together while, you know, processing our own stuff. So me, I'm processing my own identity, my spirituality as I'm dancing while another person may be doing something completely, processing something completely, something else. Yeah. That's so interesting to think about dancing as processing. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: You know, we could turn on a record right now, not that we will, but we could. holy okay wait We can do whatever we want. We can turn on some music right now and be like, hi is a what do I want to process with this music? And how do I want to physically manifest that through my body in movement, in time, or out of time? In time, yeah. When you say that, I think about
Speaker: how it is now. I mean, I haven't been onm going out as recently, you know, but the traveling and travel, but in terms of like dancing out at night, the way I used to dance, like there was no TikTok. There was no, none of that was really present in the moment. Right. Oh, do you see people doing TikTok at the club?
Speaker: Like again, I haven't been out, so. Oh, okay, okay. I was like, I felt like people did TikTok. Not even TikTok, but like just having your phone and your present, right? is recordinging Or like having to record something dope that's on the dance floor instead of just being in the moment. you And it's just for you. And just for the people who were there. Right, right, right. In that moment. And if you weren't there, you fucking missed out.
Speaker: Or you ain't missing, you live in your life, so. Right. No FOMO. No, there's no. ja Only any JOMO. Yeah. so But yeah, like um'm putting that all together to say that the time that I went out in that era, I would say that decade, 2009 to 2019, 2020, 2021 even, possibly if you went out during you know the beginning of COVID ah pandemic, I mean, it's totally different.
Speaker: Right. And I'm just really grateful to have captured and be in that house of that timeframe. My entry point into house was really special to me and the people that I got to share that with and I get to share that with. And I get to see, you know, every so often at other events, that will always live in our hearts. Yeah. It's kind of like you were, you you were like a cohort or like a class.
Speaker: that all graduated at the same time from the School of House Chicago, and you had similar experiences, you went to similar venues, yeah you listened to the same DJs, same mixes, same music, um and your movements fed off of each other at some point, right? Like, my understanding of house culture is it's very, it can be very individual, but it also can be quite communal. All of that.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, I think what I gravitated to, I just love the underground aspect of it. There will always be some type of underground to it. And I think, I guess trying to bridge what I was processing and what I tried to embody, and embodying through the show, the performances coming out. Like, you know, my undergrad, I was, my research was on taxi dance halls for Filipinos coming in. You know, you got these 20 year old bachelor of men coming in to Chicago specifically. And there's also on the West Coast, of course.
Speaker: the Um, well the zoot suits, right? During that time. Yeah. But you know, they went out, they went out to dance to these taxi dance halls and they paid all their money, their, you know, their tickets for 10 cents, a diamond dance, diamond dance with a taxi dance hall. Right. Dancer. Yeah.
Speaker: so they So they were dance with women, right? Yes, yeah um from where I read, you know. Mostly white women, right? and my yeah im and i'm ready and read Because there was no Filipino women that came over. because it's Only men. Bachelor society. Right. And specifically Chicago was more so bachelor society men who came to study. It was study... What? The universities. Oh, the universities? Different subjects. I don't know about the subjects, but they came through because of the universities, because of the scholarship.
Speaker: ah cannna i just penionna So that was in the Midwest, specifically Chicago. So that story I'm sure is very different than the Chicago or Chicago, the monos that went to the West Coast. Right, of course. It's totally different context. But I'm sure there were taxi dance halls out there too. So like just a different way of... Yeah, there were definitely dance halls out there for sure. yeah yeah so But what I was just pulling from that is like,
Speaker: going out at night underground. You have different sets of conditionings of how to court something, how to be with someone. Now you're going to be with someone that's outside of your race or you're the way you know. So like I'm thinking about that in that context where underground now in Chicago and house like where do we go to find that connection, that belonging, that courtship, that sex, that everything.
Speaker: could be kink, could be all of it. Yeah. Could be any flavor. But now in this time, yeah to what it was in 2013. So like, I like putting that all together and thinking about that. That's deep. But also thinking about these better men, they were lonely, right? I mean, they came and they maybe left their partner in the Philippines, you know? Did some of them stay and some of them went back? see I don't know if you know that research. I'm sure they did. Some of them maybe couldn't afford to go back.
Speaker: right And they had to stay. Because they wanted to connect so much, they spent all their money on the dances, on the gambling, on the whatever made them feel good. So I'm thinking about pleasure, right? Pleasure and pain and grief at that time. So that's why I was just putting all those together, and especially at least for the performance aspect. But also just our our way of dancing and moving and coming to these places. So your background is in art therapy. Yes. Okay. So you, you graduated, you know, so you have a master's in art therapy. Yeah. Recently I graduated. So I didn't go, I graduated undergrad 2010 and then I went to grad school in 2016. So I took those six years of really trying to understand myself. I think that's smart. Yeah. I think, I think, um, some people just jumped one from like undergraduate to graduate.
Speaker: And like I think those years that you like spend out in the wild are like really critical to like help inform you for your next step. Exactly. um Yeah, I'd be so curious to meet that crystal like between when you were you know newly out of college, so before like as you were kind of like formulating. like This might might have been around the time that you and I met.
Speaker: like you came back to Chicago. yeah yeah know We connected for the first time through CPI, I think, Committee on Filipino Issues. And I think at that time, you know I was organizing K and &R. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cultural Night of Resistance, um and which is definitely, like I think, like an ancestor precursor to Kultura Festival.
Speaker: on and um You know, that that was an interesting time to be in Chicago because it was like Mango Tribe was popping off. yeah You know, like I was born with two tongues was still together at that point. Yeah. Spoken word was huge. Anita Marlin, you know, like just just inspired and like also Asian American hip hop was pretty big.
Speaker: at that time. Pacifics, Denizen, yep. And there are probably more people that were not mentioning, but, you know, like the whole 606 at, what's it called, the hip hop night at subterranean. Like that's been going on for like decades, right? So like, you know, in Dumbledore, so many parties that I think of that are like,
Speaker: It would be trivial to just call it a party, but it's really, it's really a community. It's a community and the community meeting happens to be a party. It happens to be involved, yeah, drinking and dancing and a DJ and like, you know, people meet each other, but it's really like, I think for the people. The shrine.
Speaker: room. R .R .P. Dumbledore, you know. um Yeah, these are all like cultural institutions of Chicago. They're not just venues. Like these are places where community meets. Like where do you meet people outside of like school, work, church, if you go to one, yoga class, the club. That's it.
Speaker: Library? I don't know. Where do you meet people? Like, it's a community center. That's the way I think of it. It's like, who are you going to see at the community center tonight? You know, like, who's fitting at the community center? That's what I love, too. I love that. I love that. I remember, like, before I could go, I'd be my breakers. And I'm like, well, whoever I see is who I see. Whoever I share the dance for tonight will be the magic.
Speaker: Oh, that's so beautiful. Cause I know at that time too, it was like, not a lot of my friends were just be like, you go out alone. I'm just like, I go out alone, but I'll meet with people. Yeah, never alone. I will meet who I need to meet that night on the dance floor. And it's like, I love that. That's different, right? Like that's house, but then you go like to other people places where you, like you go to the club. You usually go with your girls. Right. Your crew. Your crew, whatever. Right. When you go to, for me, when you go to a house, like,
Speaker: It's okay if I go alone because I know I'm going to meet my mom. I don't need a you call. Are you going? No. right you and no go'll see so so what um and that was that but I And it was a shrine that there for that first party that I went to. is restaurant Wow. Okay. And those of you who don't know who those people are,
Speaker: You better Google them. So, I don't know if you saw when the first time you said those names, I just looked at the camera like, I was like, I was like, Theo Parrish, oh my gosh. That's a big name. Big name. In the house world. not than that In the world. After that man, I was like, that's it. I don't know what I was listening to before, but this is what it is.
Speaker: That's so amazing. So like that one night kind of changed your like musical trajectory. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You have to, you have to hear DJ's live. You gotta, you gotta taste, you gotta lick the floor. Just be all in it. What's the difference? Like listening to a DJ mix, let's say on Spotify or something, or like a track that they record or like on a SoundCloud versus seeing them live. Like what's the difference for you?
Speaker: For me, I mean, it's all the factors. It's like if you were in front of an actual, someone playing an instrument, you will feel the vibration. You will feel it on your skin. You will feel it in your organs. You will breathe differently once it hits you compared to maybe it coming from your speakers or, you know, like the sound therapy aspect of it, sound, sound, bass aspect of it.
Speaker: yeah I don't know how to do that. That's the way that I feel when I'm in a sound bath. Like when I hear like Bri and her harmonium, I'm like, I feel that vibration. Yeah. You know? Yeah. That's how I feel when I feel that. But yeah, it's that. But then also you really could feel the DJ trying to take you on a journey. And then you feel the other people with you going with it. It's such an amazing feeling. I remember I think my first time hearing Ocean Latte Um, play. It was like July of 2011 and everyone was out that night. It was beautiful. But I just, I think that was like one of my hardcore memories of like the energy in the room really, I felt elevated. Like I felt like everyone around me was elevated because the energy was so potent. The DJ was rocking the decks. Like everyone was in it spiritually, like communing to house.
Speaker: And - Did you say the vibes were immaculate? Yeah. but Everyone was sweating. Everyone was - As the kids would say, no, it was just like, yes. I love seeing on your face that you are like transported to that time. Like, like for me, it's kind of the way like when I eat a certain food and it like brings me back to a memory, like seeing your face, like as you describe it, I'm like crystals.
Speaker: they're still enjoying that moment still with your memories of like how you moved your body. like there's I think like kinetic memory is totally a thing.
Speaker: you know like And I also think that people have their certain dance moves that they do when they're like really like this one song always gets me to this channel and like, I'm going to be able to tap into that frequency. I don't know. What do you think? Is that the way you experience it, too? In terms of like feeling and just remember dancing. Yeah. And remembering. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Oh, quite cool.
Speaker: I've never really talked about dance, like transporting. Shape shift, transport. It really elevates, it changes everything. like I could be in my car on my way to work and then if a song comes on and I really get into it, I have to transport an aspect, a dimension of myself. Time traveling.
Speaker: when Yeah, those memories I have of going out like that. So good. I miss it. I miss it. But ah yeah I cherish it. Yeah. The community committee also was built. The chosen dance built through those times. So I imagine that like in that scene, like you have dancers, organizers, like the whole ecosystem of these parties, isn these community meetings that would go on at the same time every week. or
Speaker: every last Wednesday of the month. So I used to host excursions with James and Cordellas, DJs, and then myself and Boogie McLaren, and Christian Vera would be a dance host. And that's where I met Larissa. That was August of 2010 when I met Larissa at Sub T. And so whenever that night would come, shout out to Sub T. Yeah, that's a good and vi flo you but tea You know the other place, I don't know if you ever been to or if one of the places you frequented was Cinnabar.
Speaker: Oh I haven't but I remember. That was one of my spots. it was just like Yeah that was one of my spots. It was always like the crowd was always, the vibe was always great. The crowd was always like diverse.
Speaker: um I remember there would be some places where you, I would go dance as a younger person and like, there'd be too many guys trying to push up on you and it's like, I don't want to deal with this all night, you know? Like as a person being born in a female body, like, yeah unfortunately that's some of the shit that we have to deal with at the club. right But there would be other places like Cinnabar where you could just take up your space yeah and not be bothered, you know, when people knew how to approach you, um which I think is like,
Speaker: an environment that the community cultivates as like people frequent there. You know, cause I think a lot too, and just thinking about your work as like being a queer person and like holding space for QT BIPOC folks to like be comfortable in their bodies and like in their sovereignty and like feeling safe, no matter where they are. To me, that's kind of the link that I see like, you know, like between your art as a Filipino martial artist and as a movement art practitioner and like house dancer, would you say? Or like, I'm just curious, like what what what do you see the linkages? Oh, I definitely, that experience and memory making of house and that arrow for me has definitely informed how I am in therapy, ah how I am in my school setting, how I am
Speaker: in relation to folks, how I am holding space, like houses, you come as you are, you know, and you hold that space for folks as best as you can while you are also processing your own stuff, right? So it's that and so much more. I think that's definitely influenced how I hold space. How's was this? Because house is a space. Yes. It's literally a house. It's a home. It's a space. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so that definitely, yeah, FMA came around 2018. I was practicing Filipino martial arts. I was introduced to Filipino martial arts actually my last year of high school before I left for Wisconsin. Through my brother, obviously, who brought me to CPI. And we were named in teaching classes, backyard sessions, which is what influenced me to create backyard sessions, summer sessions, and starting into So close from that tradition. Cool. Yeah, I mean, you can't, I think everyone's at your point to Filipino Marshares, better be a backyard. Backyard is some food and barbecue afterwards, like. The garage door is open, the cooler's there. The garage, yeah. We gotta order some food from Ruby's, cause Ruby's was around the corner at that point. From the Hamlin house, right? i yeah Yeah. That's back when Ruby's was on Montrose. And now it's on Pulaski. That's right.
Speaker: have a neighbor that's for you. da um That's amazing. You've really been on a whole ass journey, Crystal. Yeah. Yeah. And it's still going. so proud to be your student. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah us being in space together. I love that it feels like a co -created space, whereas I've been in other like dancer martial arts space where it's felt like it's like it's definitely your space but you make it feel like it's our space like we're all contributing to the vibe and we all have like you know a mutual responsibility towards each other and ourselves to make it as good as we can. you know like A good, healthy learning environment, taking up space, stepping back when we need to, pitching in to help if we're called upon. But just like modeling for newer students who come through sometimes, maybe they don't know the five moves,
Speaker: and just making everybody feel welcome who comes to this space. And it's always good to take up space, right? Like every space that we've gone to, you know, like just to be like in our Filipino bodies and like taking up public space, like, you know, whether it's in Pingtong Park, whether it's Japanese Garden, somebody's backyard. Yeah. 39th Beach.
Speaker: by the Coppola structure. The Coppola structure. Yup. Yup. Maybe sometime when we do another outdoor session we could do one by the result statue. Oh yes we did then. Oh yeah? Okay! We'll do it again. Yeah that'd be nice. That'd be nice. Yeah that was I think summer 2020. We did one session. Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, just like different. I have different snippets and I have pictures and stuff that are not organized, but it's like I have snippets of all the places we've been. And I'm just like, yeah, be. And that was a point like to be able to travel to Chicago through these sessions. Someone's backyard. If you've only been in the north side, we won't take you to the south side. The west side. You know, and so if you say you're from Chicago, you better be all about Chicago.
Speaker: The north side. My little north side bubble. Chicago's so big. I don't think people realize how big geographically Chicago is. And people a lot of times talk about the 77 neighborhoods. 77 neighborhoods. like Each of them has like a little flavor. And even within the same neighborhoods, it has different flavors. Exactly.
Speaker: Well, thanks for taking us on a whole last journey. Thank you for riding you off and asking me a question. Yeah, yeah. I'm looking at the time it's way past where we thought we were going to be, but that's okay. It's okay. How do you feel? I just want to check in. I feel great. Good. Is there anything that you want to talk about that we haven't talked about yet or haven't touched on or you feel fine like landing the plane or?
Speaker: I think we could land the plane. We could land the plane. I mean, we talked about the journey of dance and movement, martial arts. Yeah, I just, you know, all this movement that's been here and that's coming and that's there to remember that is always, I don't know, it's just, it's taking me to one step to the next. I don't know what the place will be, but I trust it.
Speaker: leading up and the people who come will be there. So let's, uh, let's sign off within the way that we usually sign off your sessions. Like we, we and we have usually like a formal beginning, middle and end, right? So, um, what do we do with, we face different directions, right? Yeah, that's the beginning. And then the closing is,
Speaker: We do this, right? We're going to Chinatown. eat. And I can make a food. But that won't be on camera. No, yeah, we got to close it with us.
Speaker: Thank you, Crystal. ah yeah but i'm a alema
