Embodying Spontaneity: A Conversation With Jozef Frucek of Fighting Monkey

In conversation, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Jozef Frucek. He and Linda Kapetanea are the creators of Fighting Monkey, which is a beautiful system that weaves together movement, learning, communication, creativity, improvisation and a re-imagination of the process and experience of aging.

Jozef has studied deeply in Chinese medicine and martial arts along with having advanced degrees in voice and movement. He and Linda teach at Universities and dance and performance companies around the world.

I had followed Fighting Monkey for many years in the natural movement world, and was able take some classes with Jozef when they began teaching online during the pandemic. I was reminded of a line from one of our Feldenkrais teachers, Ruthy Alon, who coined the term “the grammar of spontaneity.” I find that Fighting Monkey helps to grow a grammar of spontaneous, natural, dynamic movement that weaves together essential principles from many movement traditions.

In our conversation, Jozef and I speak about how growing our spontaneity and creativity in movement increases our sense of creativity and spontaneity in how we live, how we think, how we speak, and express ourselves. We also discuss how essential new ways of thinking and participating in the world are, given the immense challenges we face in these times.

We speak of the importance of systems based practice when it comes to movement and to life.

We discuss the importance of play in learning, and how many adults forget how to learn and play as we age. We also look at the aging process, and how the manner in which we approach our movement shapes how we approach our aging process.

You can find more about Jozef, Linda and Fighting Monkey at fightingmonkey.net