‘Ello my lovelies.
For those of you who are unawares this Scrapper is currently in the Motherland (England) getting his masters degree. While here I knew I was going to have to keep up my stage combat training as well as get to know a sister organization of the SAFD in the BASSC (that’s British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat).
I popped down to Foggy London Town for the weekend and attended The Lion weekend workshop and had a blast. First thing you need to know about this workshop is that it is much smaller than the typical SAFD regional workshop. Winter Wonderland it ain’t (but then again what can really compare to Wonderland?). There were at most 14 students attending this workshop. What that meant was that we took all the classes together. Everyone worked with everyone no matter what skill level making those advanced students go back to the basics and stretching the beginning students in areas that they normally would not have felt comfortable.
The theme for this year’s Lion was East vs. West. All classes looked at various weapons and fight styles from either Western culture perspective or Eastern. The first day was the best example of this.
The two morning sessions, taught by Jonathan Leverett, looked at basic techniques of the Broadsword and Quarterstaff. Nothing too new or shocking here as he taught similar methods and styles found in most SAFD basic Broadsword and Quarterstaff classes. It was good though to go back and work on those basic techniques that sometimes regress after years of training. Jonathan also had what had to be my favorite quote of the workshop – “Fighting doesn’t determine who is right, only who is left.” Let that one sink in.
What was great though was how they built on the theme of East vs. West in the second part of the day. Led by Marlon Bulger and Ronin Traynor (who was also the coordinator for the workshop) we first did some work with the Bokken, a wooden samurai sword, highlighting the differences between it and the western style broadsword. The last class was brilliant as I got to work in a weapon that I had never had before – Naganita. The Naganita is the Japanese version of a pole arm, but basically it is a Quarterstaff with a Samurai Sword attached at the end. Lots of fun. We finished the day by doing a little piece of choreography of Bokken vs. Naganita. Much fun.
While that first day was brilliant the second day absolutely topped it.
First class in the morning was Victorian Walking Stick/Cane led by Rob Leonard. Rob clearly has an affinity and love for this weapon. Using it much like a modified Single Sword, only with no edge, he introduced us to the versatility of the weapon. He said he’s hoping to teach a weekend workshop just on Victorian Cane, that should be fun.
We then transitioned into more eastern styles with Bret Yount and Philip d’Orleans teaching a Numerado (Stick and Knife) Kata in a Kali/Escrima style. This was great, probably because I love Kali and stick fighting. After it I had a conversation with a younger actor combatant who felt very uncomfortable with this because it was more martial arts than stage combat. While that may be I liked the fact that any workshop on Stage Combat would focus just as much on the combat side as the stage/theatrical side.
This continued after lunch with the class that definitely was the most fun of the workshop – Tameshiwara… or as I like to call it, Breaking Shit. This was led by Sam Kahn who has a very strong martial arts/karate background. He first show us a series of strikes and punches and then brought out rebreakable boards for us to punch through. Oh man, if you ever need to take out some aggression you should definitely invest in some of these. Basically they are a slightly curved board with a (somewhat) padded target. If you strike the target correctly the board breaks into two pieces that you can then fix back together and give it another go. By the end of the class I had punched, karate chopped, backhanded, kicked, head butted and broken through multiple boards. So much fun.
Finally the workshop ended with Sam Kahn leading a choreography class using the Bokken and multiple attackers, nothing new but fighting is fighting and it was great.
Like all workshops it concluded at the local pub for a pint and great conversations. Much thanks to Ronin, Jonathan, Marlon, Bret, Philip, Sam, and Roger Bartlett (who didn’t teach but is coming to Wonderland this year) for making this SAFDer feel at home in his current country.
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