Reflections on Kristine Stiles: RODFORCE

RODFORCE is a term, but also a moniker used by performance artist Sherman Fleming. I find Fleming’s use of the RODFORCE persona to be insightful, playful, and honest in its mockery. In Kristine Stiles article the author quotes Fleming explaining the use of the term: “I was trying to make a commentary on the Abstract Expressionists who I feel represented the Western ideal of brute men…” RODFORCE, a power driven by phallic energy becomes almost satirical in Fleming’s performances. I find his motivational perspective to be rather fascinating. The artist explains, “Ax Vapor is actually a thesis on the role and tradition of dance in society.” He goes on to explain that dance had changed after the industrial era, “…the waltz arrived. In that type of dancing, women lost their status; they had to be led around the floor.” Ax Vapor consisted of Fleming wearing combat boots constructed with halved bowling balls on the soles. The effect of the bowling balls was an unstable and unpredictable effect when he danced. When Stiles writes, “the necessity to endure and persist, the ability to recover from a metaphorical “fall,” the keen and artful balance of remaining upright at the same time in attempting to move along a surface that constantly changes”, I see clearly a powerful metaphor for the way we stumble through life. The satire of RODFORCE arrives in Fleming’s explanation of physical endurance as they relate to ritual and myth. The idea of physical exertions being a practice of, “male rights of passage”, and Fleming’s belief that these tasks ultimately, “will help them to gain a kind of mystic intelligence associated with female knowledge", resolve my interpretation that “RODFORCE” essentially explains the ritual action of the male as a means to invoke female intuition, insight, intellect.
What I found especially interesting was Stiles opinion on performance. She says, "Who that person is, his or her very Being-- fundamentally dictates the quality of the art." 
Stiles believes that the quality of a performance is to be judged by, "ability to capture the mind of the observer through the physical magnetism and movement of the body." Does this marginalize performers by agility and age? Why does "Who that person is" dictate quality? Is it possible that rather than "who that person is" but how that person presents who they are might dictate quality?