The release of “Cellophane” left us reeling. Not just because it was the first new music that FKA twigs has released in the last three years, but because the song was her most vulnerable yet, paired with a powerful video that shows off her pole-dancing skills. A new short film called Practice, which launches today exclusively on WeTransfer’s editorial platform, WePresent, documents the intense physical training that twigs underwent to make the video and to bring her creative vision to life.
“The concept for ‘Cellophane’ came while I was writing it, more than a year before we shot the video,” twigs explains. “So I had to go learn pole-dancing, which is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I wanted to show that process – the practice, the training, the moments when it isn’t quite working. The journey.”
Twigs trained intensely for an entire year, doing cardio twice a day, practicing on the pole at least two hours a day, cross-training, all the while making sure to eat and sleep well. Baring it all in her lyrics, she wanted the Andrew Thomas Huang-directed music video to be a testament to her strength. The poignant, brooding song is incredibly emotional. “Didn’t I do it for you?/ Why don’t I do it for you?” twigs sings, full of heartbreak. “Why won’t you do it for me?/ When all I do is for you?”
“Sometimes when I write something that’s really vulnerable… I know that that’s a very, like, human feeling. So, when I thought of the video concept, to be asking somebody ‘Didn’t I do it for you?’ whilst doing these amazing tricks on the pole,” twigs says. “To me, there’s almost something humorous about that, though other people won’t see it that way. But to me, it’s sick and it’s funny and it feels powerful like… I’m more than enough. You can’t even handle it.”
Practice, directed by AnAkA, takes us behind the scenes of the stunning video — to twigs’ early morning and late night training sessions — which proved both physically and psychologically demanding, demonstrating the singer’s dedication and resilience. Watch the full documentary above.
