APRIL 2024 ISSUE
The Martial Arts Pro Who Taught FKA Twigs How To Wield A Sword
BY HANNAH COATES
14 March 2024
Jeff Kravitz
You can see FKA twigs pulling all manner of shapes for British Vogue’s April issue cover shoot, but what you don’t see are the sword-wielding martial arts skills (alongside pole practice, choreography and other types of dance) that keep her body in peak physical condition. Her music videos are yet another reminder of the incredible body work the artist does in her spare tcime – when she’s not busy producing acclaimed albums.
One of the most intriguing elements in her workout routine (if you can call it that – this requires much more skill than simply taking to the treadmill), is her penchant for Wushu, the Chinese term for “martial arts”. “Its roots are in Chinese martial arts, but it encompasses different types of styles, including kung fu, Tai Chi and other traditional forms,” explains Samuel Mak, twigs’s instructor and a World Junior Wushu Champion. While the sport is recognised by the Olympics’ governing body, it’s not yet an Olympic sport, although it will feature in the junior Olympics in a couple of years time – “a big step for the sport”.
There are different forms of Wushu – Taolu and Sanda – and Mak specialises in the former. “You do a routine and get marked on your performance, based on the skills you display and mistakes you make,” he says. “Sanda, meanwhile, is about combat and is a mixture of kickboxing and wrestling.” Taolu is choreographed and made up of certain movements, such as tornado kicks, twists, punches, aerial cartwheels, jumping and – here’s where it gets spicy – sword and spear work. You might have seen twigs spinning swords about on Instagram – Mak had something to do with that.
The pair have worked together since 2019, when she was gearing up to film her music video for “Sad Day”. “The concept was to have a Wushu element to it, but it was set in a grimy east London location. She’d already trained in Wushu before, but that’s when I came on board and choreographed that whole music video with her and the director,” he explains. “Since then, she’s wielded Wushu swords in her performances, so we just carried on training together.” The pair have worked on three music videos – including “Don’t Judge Me” with Headie One and “Measure Of A Man” – incorporating different styles of martial arts, including flowy Tai Chi movements and, of course, some “sword stuff”.
It doesn’t look easy – in fact I think I speak for us all when I say it looks dangerous. “The sword stuff is tough,” Mak agrees – and he’s someone who started practising from the age of three, and was holding a sword by the age of six. “I didn’t pick up a sword for two or three years, having done all the basics – you need coordination, movement and body control. There’s a whole process you go through before you even think about picking up a sword.”
That was not the case for twigs, though, whose extensive training as a dancer meant she already had “amazing control over her body and her extension, and understands choreography so can pick things up really quickly”. She took an accelerated path to sword-dom, doing complicated moves during a solid six months of extensive training for that first music video. “She put a lot of time, effort and commitment into it, which is why she achieves the things she does on film – you’d be hard pushed to find any other artists with her diverse skill set,” says Mak.
I ask Mak what benefits Wushu can offer in terms of mental wellbeing. (It strikes me that martial arts have long been connected with resilience, strength and fortitude, as well as balancing a calm, rational mind with an energetic one.) He calls it his “happy space”, a sport that he can get lost in, achieving a “flow state”, as they call it. Linked to good mental health, flow state can be achieved when we’re completely focused on something, so much so that nothing else matters. It’s moving mindfulness. “The hardest part is getting into flow state for competition, but the last World Championships I went to in November, I was able to be in flow state for the competition, and performed the best I ever have – everything just disappears,” he says.
As twigs continues to grow her own skill set, the pair are now beyond practising the basics and exploring combinations of moves. “She’s at a point where she understands all the basics, so it’s about exploring her style and expression and how that manifests into Wushu,” he says. “How does she want to move? And what style? Then we put that into a sequence.” Sword or no sword, it’s impressive stuff.
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