I Am Bruce Lee Page #3

It's beauty, it's passion, it's art.

It's... It's painting a picture

without tools.

It was a surprise,

but an understandable one,

when I found out that Bruce Lee

was a cha-cha champion,

because you could see that reflected

in his fighting style.

He was the 1957

Hong Kong cha-cha champion.

People don't know that. His footwork

was impeccable. Incredible samba dancer.

He didn't move like anybody else.

He moved like himself.

In a fight you have footwork

and you have form

and you have stance and power

that you interject,

and that's the way that dancing

and martial arts go hand in hand.

For him to be steeped into that rhythm

reinforced why black people

have always identified with Bruce

and his fighting style.

So what I got from Bruce

as a performer is...

You know, most performers

perform like this, right? Straight up.

Me, perform from the side,

sort of like how Bruce

used to always, you know,

be ready for combat like this.

Honestly expressing yourself,

like me being a dancer,

that's what it's all about.

That's another big, big philosophy from

him that I take with me to this day.

So I'll be performing like,

"Bah, bah! Bah, bah, bah, bah!"

I keep trying to dig deeper

and deeper within myself

and find that fluidity

that no one can replicate.

That's the vibe

that Bruce Lee taught me.

It's to always bring it.

That's what I get from Bruce.

- And when did you leave Hong Kong?

- 1959, when I was 18.

It had gotten a little

difficult with the police on one side

and with gangs on the other side.

He beat this kid up,

but he didn't know that the kid

was the son of a high-ranking

police officer in Hong Kong.

He got into so many street fights

that by 18, his father gave him $100

and sent him off to America.

If he wanted

his immigration status to be US citizen,

then he had to return

by the time he was 18.

To go when you're still a star

is very strange,

because he could have kept doing films,

but they wanted him to go,

to make the right decision

of where he's going next.

In Seattle, my father

started teaching martial arts.

He didn't ever look at people because of

their race or their stature in life.

If you had a sincere interest

in martial arts, he would teach you.

Taky Kimura was really his best friend.

Taky became his first assistant

instructor in his first school,

the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute,

in Seattle, Washington.

Bruce used to come

to my high school

and he used to teach

in the Chinese philosophy class.

He was five years older than we were

and I do remember my heart going,

"Pah, pah, pah", you know,

"He is sure cute. "

It wasn't long after that that I started

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