(KZ3 in a singlet is something I didn't know I needed until now. Thanks to Devilbrigade6 for this gift)
"Tell me something, girl
Are you happy in this modern world?
Or do you need more?
Is there something else you're searchin' for?
I'm falling
In all the good times, I find myself longin' for change
And in the bad times, I fear myself" - Shallow (2018, Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga)
5 AM - Wake up, get ready, drink pre-workout, BCAAs, and Creatine
5:30 AM - Yoga at YogaSix studio
6:30 AM - End Yoga, walk to gym
6:45 AM - Physical Training (Calisthenic regime and 1.5 mile run)
7:55 AM - End training, go home.
8:10 - 8:55 - Shower, Eat Breakfast
9:00 - 10:00 - Finish any work that needs to be taken care if there's not a meeting. Get dressed for work.
10:30 - 2:30 - Work Job 1 as a College Program Coordinator.
3:00 - 6:00 - Work Job 2 as a Breakdance Instructor. (Unless it's Wednesday or Thursday, then it's to 7:15)
6:00 - 7:30 - Train as a Breakdancer
7:45 - 10:00 - Work Job 3 as a commissioning artist.
10:00 - 11:00 - Independent time/ Bed.
That's been my daily schedule for the past month and, if I would change anything, it'd be finding a way to hop off Job 1 so that I could do martial arts training at that 11:00 - 1:00pm time slot. I won't lie, this schedule has negatively impacted my art output as I get either too tired or too busy to actually sit down and create the many things that I want to, but I know this is temporary for what's coming in the future.
Because of my 2nd job as a Dance Instructor, that takes a lot of financial pressure off having to earn so much as an artist to pay the bills. For the first time, making the jump to be a full-time artist is within realistic view - question is, WHEN do I reach out and grab it?
Why All This?
Why all the training? Why not just stick with art, 3D, graphic design, etc.,
Well ultimately it comes down to the fact that I want to bring KZ3 to life or (as I stated in previous blogs) get as close as I can to being him without actually mutating into a big bara werepoodle
What does that actually look like and why is this so important?
It's important to me because ultimately I want to make my mark in the fandom I've spent the large majority of my life admiring. I don't want to be another creator who simply came and went and who's work is forgotten in the back pages of VCL and Furaffinity with nothing but a couple of RIP's to remember me. I want to leave the fandom better than when I came into it for the next generation and I want to show people (not just in the fandom but outside the fandom too) what is possible and achievable when you chase a dream thought by many to be ridiculous in an otherwise largely misunderstood sub-culture. I want to be able to show just how far one can take this in a personal positive direction.
But what does it actually look like?
Well it all started back in 2013 when it came to a video I saw posted by Lightning the Fox of Condition Wasteland's (Furry convention) Dance Competition. It was the Summer before I would leave for my first year of art college at MCAD and I was curious as to what a furry convention actually entailed. So I clicked the link and watched through all the Dance Videos but it was this video right here that sparked the flame that's led me to where I am now.
When Zeke the Hyena landed that flip I knew that this is what I wanted to do.
Back then, I knew nothing about dance. I was an uncoordinated, unconfident, sexually confused naive 18 year old about to be on his own for the first time. I was tired of holding myself back out of fear and wanted to reinvent myself in college; to do the things I always wanted to do but was too afraid of because of what other people thought.
So my first semester in college I started watching the only dance crew I knew of - The Jabbawockeez. After scouring the internet, watching America's Best Dance Crew Videos and Music videos depicting dancers like Chris Brown, Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Usher, I discovered World of Dance which led me to discover Les Twins (as well as Ian Eastwood and Fik-Shun)
And man, these two were my ultimate inspiration for learning how to dance. I started learning to dance by dancing in my dorm (with my below dorm neighbors permission lol) and going to the old bboy.com (a site that no longer exists) to follow their guide of how to get started breakdancing. The next semester I started Dance Club at the college and practice 2-3 times a week while being OBSESSED with Les Twins performances (Not kidding, I would spend 2-3 hours a day watching the same performances). I changed my hair to be like there's, started wearing what they would wear.
That Summer I took Breakdancing 101 class and every year since I would run Dance Club during the school year, and train dance in the Summers and Winters. I got lazy in 2017 after graduating from Art School and fell out of practice. (Without a fursuit and with a limited Iowa breakdance scene, I didn't see a future in me dancing) Despite this, I managed to win my first Furry Convention Floor Wars at Furry Migration 2019
Then I got lazy again when Covid-19 lockdown happened and during that I REALLY let myself go and gained Covid-19 pounds.
It wasn't until I learned during the Summer of 2021 that Breakdancing would be an Olympic sport in 2024 that I made it my New Years Resolution to link back up with the teacher who taught me how to breakdance and get back into the craft and help him develop more students.
2022 was the year I helped form, run, taking part ownership of a breakdance company and it's been a great ride.
But Why Dance?
To me, dancing isn't like any other medium. The engagement, the energy, the amazement of it all was something I felt first from Zeke's performance and I understood there's tremendous power in the ability to be able to get people excited and off their feet - cheering your name, being present in that exact moment in time; it was an art in itself.
After that I understood early on that Summer of 2013 that dance was a form of entertainment, and that I wanted to build a complete brand of what I called the 5 Elements of Entertainment:
- Arts (Art, Crafts, Designs, Fashion, Comics, Programming)
- Writing (Storytelling, Poetry, Screenwriting, Novels)
- Performance (Acting, Circus, Hosting, Podcasting, Video Creation - Having something people want to go and visually watch)
- Music (Singing, Producing, Rapping, Creating Sound others want to hear)
- Dancing (Any style, just be decent at it)
Ways to 'energy bend', create things with your body that excites, entertains, and amuses others for a temporary period of time.
And that's why I'm so hooked on trying to be as close to my vision of KZ3 as possible, because I want others to see the sona' as I do, a master of the 5 elements of entertainment. Someone and something that brings joy to others through what's created (but not inauthentically so).
To me KZ3 is a Calisthenics Master:
A Martial Arts Expert:
(Dance) An Elite level Bboy:
(Writing) A great novelist like Kyell Gold:
(Art) And a great comic artist like SolidASP and BlackRat.
I'm still not sure what I want to do for Music to be honest but I know that decision will come soon. As for podcasting and acting, those are in the works ;)
In Conclusion
There's lots of things I want to do and obtain the require a significant amount of training and time, and I'm on the way to doing so. This was a little trip down memory lane to explain exactly how I got here and what I'm aiming to do in the future! Hope you'll all be a long for the ride!