Last Friday night Academie Duello and the Social Concierge hosted an elegant tournament and demonstration of swordplay at the Vancouver Club in downtown Vancouver. The evening involved performances from the Vancouver Opera, Champagne Sabreing with various historical swords, a beautiful decked out ballroom, and an invitational rapier tournament of Academie Duello's senior students.

The event, which looks to be an annual affair, went off superbly. The setting was beautifully attired, the audience engaged, and the sword fighting was excellent. I'm proud of everyone who was involved.

We're working on assembling photos and video of the event to give a better picture of the tournament and festivities but until then there are some beautiful photos already online care of a few local bloggers. The Glass Eye presents a beautiful photo expose of the evening from singing to swordplay; Prevail presents an event report on his blog Prevail Prevail; the Social Concierge has uploaded a set of great photos on their facebook page; and the Vancouver Sun reported on the event in their community blog.

Check them out and stay posted for the forthcoming tournament video highlights.

UPDATE: The Province also posted a photo gallery of the event.

Devon Boorman is the Co-Founder and Director of Academie Duello Centre for Swordplay, which has been active in Vancouver, Canada since 2004. Devon’s expertise centres on the Italian swordplay tradition including the arts of the Renaissance Italian rapier, sidesword, and longsword, as well as knife and unarmed techniques.
Read more from Devon Boorman.