Curt wrote:
> On Aug 23, 12:10 am, Wolf Whitewater <white_water_rap...@comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>>Curt wrote:
>>
>>>Wolf Whitewater <white_water_rap...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>>>One of them I had to get re-pierced after a choreographed fight
>>
>>>I'd be interested to learn more about that.
>>
>>Which? The choreographed fight or the re-piercing?
>
>
> The choreographed fight.
>
> --
> Curt
>
Well, all the sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat you see in the
movies is choreographed, kind of like a dance. The moves are generally
taken from real life, and are modified a little so that you don't
actually break bones or do significant damage. The moves, however, are
not fake. If you're not careful, and if you don't follow the rules or
learn the techniques poorly, you *can* injure or kill people -- or
yourself. This is not a martial art for idiots. A lot of stuntmen learn
this art as well as how to fall off buildings and whatnot and it's not
unheard of for stunt folks to be killed or injured doing stunts! The art
is called stage combat, and it's a 'soft' martial art, meaning that the
most you can expect to be hurt is scrapes, bruises and aching muscles.
Additionally, stage combat is 'soft' because you are working with your
partner, the energy is flowing between both of you. 'Hard' martial arts
seek to actually cause harm (kickboxing, muy tai, etc) and often the
energy is dominating and oppositional instead of free flowing.
Anyhow, I digress. You can learn about the kind of stage combat I do/did
by looking up the Society of American Fight Directors (last I heard, the
website was
www.safd.org but things might have changed), you'll get all
kinds of information there.
The fight I was in was part of a certification program (which now has
been totally re-formatted) so that if I wanted to fight onstage
somewhere, the people hiring me would know that I met or exceeded the
basic safety and artistic requirements of the SAFD. I got a little piece
of paper to hang on my wall and everything.
Luckily the accident happened during a training session and not during
the test itself!
My partner was suppose to grab my head by my hair and slam my head into
his knee. Quite obviously I wasn't actually going to be hurt, that's
just what it was supposed to look like. In that particular combination
of moves, my partner was supposed to grab my hair, and I was supposed to
do the rest of the work. Unfortunately, while he was performing the
hair-grab technique, my partner miscalculated and grabbed my ear
instead. He didn't realize it and performed the technique, which caused
pressure and whatnot on my earring. Luckily my earring gave before my
ear did! Once he realized what happened he let go, but it was too late.
My earring had gotten wrenched in two, and had fallen with some force
out of my ear, creating a small gash in my ear from the point of the
piercing up into my cartilage.
There wasn't a whole lot of blood, just a bit here and there. I found my
earring (it had gotten flung the length of the room), cleaned up the
wound, put an ice pack on for a little bit, and then went back to work.
I used to have all kinds of little scars here and there from my stage
combat days, but by and large they have all healed and gone away by now.
Particularly if you're working with knives or swords, you can't help
getting nicked every now and again. It come with the territory.
I did learn, however, why you're not really supposed to wear jewelry
while you're fighting!
Whitewater