Hey everyone, it’s one week away from our performance at "Bard on the Beach: Fight Night”, Monday Sept 8, 7:30pm! It will be an amazing night of swords and words: readings and stories from Christopher Gaze and C. C. Humphreys, famous sword fights re-enacted from Shakespeare's plays, and behind the scenes explanations of the choreographic process.…
It's that time of year again, and we are taking registration for Carosella 2014! This three-day Mounted Combat Symposium has something for everyone, from absolute beginners to accomplished knights. Friday and Saturday consist of workshops on foot, on falsemount, and on the ground, and Sunday is our annual tournament where you will have a chance…
At the Fight Directors Canada annual National Workshop, we are always honoured by the presence of our Maitre d’Armes J.P. Fournier. This year, the Basic Actor-Combatant class were privileged to learn single sword from our living legend. Honour to Him The Nationals this year coincided with the gala to honour J.P. with a Sterling Lifetime…
This week, we take a short look at successful people and activities within the HEMA/WMA community. But what is “success” for a HEMA/WMA ‘guild’ or swordplay salle? Is it represented by numbers …. the number of students that show up consistently for class? The number that are ‘on the books’? The number of students that…
One of the fears among city-dwellers in 1890’s London was being strangled by an unseen attacker from behind. And why not? That’s a pretty dangerous situation, and one that seems difficult to escape. That particular fear drove the development of Bartitsu. The neck feels particularly vulnerable, and for good reason. There are 3 types of…
Here at Academie Duello you will often hear us talk about the True Fight and the Adaptive Fight. Both are important to learn so one can transition and flow between the two of them using both to paint a full combative picture. In the True Fight the attacker and defender are in a dance of…
Here, read this, I’ll try to drop by later to chat … &^%$#@!! international situation! Unless stupid things explode overseas (or significantly more so than usual), We’ll be in Vancouver next week attending the 10th Anniversary ‘Duello Days’ and will not be updating the Press. 30 Shades of (registered) Swordplay JUNKEE (Sydney, Australia) 22 July…
The script will inform the actor and the audience why two characters want to kill each other. However, even with the clearest scenes, as peaceful people it can be difficult to emotionally understand a fight to the death. So as a performer, how do we interpret and justify the stakes of a fight scene with…
Luck: Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions. (Oxford dictionary) And how lucky we are as HEMA/WMA students: Swords of iron and steel survive ‘centuries’ of abuse, neglect, climatic conditions causing near total structural decay, ‘resource recycling’, etc … and we still have many examples of what medieval and…
The requirements of service may have your paperboy posted near immediately into Stuttgart until the New Year, so We thought that we’d take a look in at what’s going on over there with swordplay, WMA/HEMA and related events. Full Metal Impact … in two directions! BADISCHE ZEITUNG (Freiburg, Germany) 05 July 14 So wie…
It’s 28°C/83°C in your nations capital as We type … and somewhere nearby we have peers dressed in full armour, demonstrating what we do to an appreciative Canada Day audience. Honking huge falchions and arming swords, heavy shields, hot and heavy helmets protecting eyes full of dripping sweat, slippery gauntlets dripping with the same ……
The lantern jaw and the brow ridge aren’t accidentally related to testosterone production. We know that during development, testosterone levels during critical phases will determine certain male-dominated bone structures. Recently, a new hypothesis explains why the human face evolved the way it did. On the Face of It The researchers examined skulls of human ancestors,…
Canada Day is upon us and what better way to celebrate the "true North strong and free" by taking a look into our country's history. We've come a long way from July 1st, 1867 when just three colonies were united under the British North American Act. 147 years later we now have a nation…
The demands of service took us away on short notice for three weeks, … but We’ll grovel in apology later. First … Hodor! Or rather … ‘Bohurt’! HEMA/WMA matches. I hurt. You hurt. Bohurt! Curriculum – bringing dignity to what otherwise is a vulgar brawl. LA WEEKLY (California) 13 June 14 An L.A. School for…
As a SwordFit coach one of the concepts that I try to drill into my students is that their body is the most important weapon they use in their study, training and application of Western Martial Arts. We oil our swords, but what about basic body maintenance? Our bodies are the most crucial part of our…
Read More... from Conditioning and Foundational Movement Skills: Essentials for Every Swordfighter
Each summer, Fight Directors Canada, the national certification body for stage combat, holds an intensive workshop at which students can earn their next level of certification. It is attended by as many Fight Masters as possible, including international guests. For those living in places other than the big theatre centres in Canada, it may be…
Hitting things is usually satisfying. Watching a villain get away is stressful because we want to see the hero fight him into submission, and if he’s a murderer, we’ll root for the hero to kill him in revenge. Violent video games are best-sellers. Let’s not deny that if you practice swordplay or stage combat, you…
By popular demand, here is a list of books on Bartitsu: The Bartitsu Compendium I & II edited by Tony Wolf Sherlock Holmes School of Self-Defence by Ivy Press Related Period Material: The Secrets of Jujitsu by Re-Nie Jiu Jitsu and Other Methods of Self Defense by Percy Longhurst Boxing by R.G. Allanson-Winn Scientific Boxing…