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The Evolution of the Core Four

By Paul Ray

(fig.1)

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The Core Four: A New Acting Method and Philosophy

I propose that using these elements—contextual historical study; movement study with a focus

on the core; self-exploration, including self-understanding and awareness; somatic integration;

and acting techniques—combined with a physical component based on each Fiori “Animal” that

integrates that animals’ traits and metaphors, will better prepare the actor/combatant to inhabit

the role and the fight choreography in a more fully integrated, confident, and physically safe

way. In brief, this method has intellectual, psychological, emotional, spiritual, contextually his-

toric, and physical components.

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Contents

Chapter I: Introduction Chapter II: Evolution

o The Journey to This Point. o The Beginnings of An Interdisciplinary Practice. o The Elements Used to Create the Core Four.

Spirituality

The Society of American Fight Directors.

Gyrotonic Movement®

SPRe®

Fiori Philosophy/Historical Perspectives. o The Plan. o Final Project in Colorado: Henry IV, Part I. The Douglas.

Chapter III: The Core Four in Theory. Lynx; Cognitive therapy, prudence, perception, perspective, mental preparedness.

o Self-awareness o Establishing Intention o Establishing Space/Partnering o Partnering o Believability: the audience perception o Lynx Warm-up

Elephant; Gyrotonic and core, strength, foundation, balance, support, communication. o Core Work o Maintaining a Foundation o Elephant Warm-up

Tiger; Gyrotonic and movement. Healthier living, skills test, fight ability, tactics, strength, agility, overcoming fears.

o Agility o Choice of strategy/choreography/weapon. o Tiger warm-up.

Lion; SPREe,emotional discovery and honesty, opening the heart, breath and authentic voice, difficult emotions.

o Using somatic realizations/emotions. o Heart and Fearlessnesss. o Facing difficulty with courage and confidence. o Communication/Authentic voice. o The Breath o Lion Warm-up

Chapter IV: The Core Four in Practice. o Teaching the Core Four.

Emily Answers Questions.

Andrea Answers Questions. o Final Project in Colorado/Journal Entries.

Chapter V: Conclusion o Core Four Results o Notes from Lai Wan.

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o Reflections on the Final Project.

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Chapter I: Introduction

When I was first trying to decide what my final project would look like, I turned to Goddard's

Degree criteria. It appeared that I could create a piece of work that evaluated all of my discover-

ies, while drawing from the last four semesters by discussing and summarizing it. Alternatively, I

could create something totally new, based on my prior work.

When I thought about doing the former, I realized how much I leaned toward doing the

latter. I wanted to acknowledge and make use of my past work, but was intent on looking into the

future—creating something brand new that integrated what I had experienced, learned, and dis-

covered about myself into a practice that would become the foundation for all future teaching

and personal work.

The philosophy of my practice is simple: improve myself to improve my art, and bring

my best self to the art form. That was what I said as I stepped into this work two years ago.

Stage combat, to me, is an expression of that and why I pursue it.

This program has been an emotional journey for me—an evolution of myself emotion-

ally, physically, mentally, and professionally. In the true sense of the term “interdisciplinary,” I

have worked with different movement systems, in-depth therapeutic work, artistic and theatrical

techniques, historical studies, and Eastern and Western martial arts techniques and philosophies.

In my practicum project, I brought all of these study subjects together to create a video

project, bringing to life a story that has resonated with me for a long time—a story of a Renais-

sance duel—using the first weapons with which I was trained. To create this story, I used all of

the techniques and concepts from the subject areas I had been studying. This entailed writing the

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story and creating storyboards for the filming; creating the fight, using specific movement sys-

tems; working emotionally and physically with my stage combat partner, a former mentor of

mine; studying the history of the time, costuming the actors, securing a location, and creating the

atmosphere of the story; and shooting and editing the video.

This project was a huge learning process for me, and it helped me see what the manifesta-

tion of a combination of my studies could look like. Using this experience of combining many

diverse elements, I looked toward my final project, knowing that I wanted to do something simi-

lar, but different.

I wanted to explore embodying the physical work of Gyrotonic movement—which I will

describe further in the “Elements” section—even more into my stage combat practice. I have

been doing this in varying degrees throughout all of my projects, but I knew I wanted to go fur-

ther and perhaps discover something permanent that I could use throughout my professional ca-

reer—as well as potentially teach to future students as a way of extending the training they get

through the SAFD (Society of American Fight Directors.)

I chose to return to my Fiori dei Liberi roots. Fiori dei Liberi was an Italian sword master

in the 1400s who wrote several treatises on the Martial Arts and armored combat. His Flower of

Battle (Charrette p4) and other treatises such as the Floss Dueletorum (Charrette p3) survive with

sketches concerning the application of Martial Combat from medieval Western Europe. I have

been attracted to these sketches for many years as they are simple sketches that could be under-

stood and recreated. Fioris’ treatises are some of the oldest and rarest martial manuscripts to sur-

vive from Western Europe from this time period.

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I began my Master’s program, the G1 semester, with an in-depth study of some of his

fight moves and techniques—as illustrated by his martial treatise, Floss Dueletorum—with the

help of a fight colleague. With the Core Four project, however, I wanted to go deeper into his

philosophy of the qualities of a medieval swordsman—mental, physical, spiritual, technical, and

moral. I wanted to create a physical practice defined by the personal in-depth physical and emo-

tional discoveries I have made in the last two years.

Therefore, I’m framing this work with animal metaphors utilized by Fiori Dei Liberi, us-

ing his martial philosophy that survives from Italy, circa 1409. Like the number three (the Trin-

ity), the number four has long been associated with powerful and mystical groupings, such as the

four directions: North, South, East, West; and the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. I

imagine that is why Fiori chose four animals to represent his ideology. I’ve chosen them as the

structure for my “Core Four.”

The particular animals, themselves, have powerful meanings and represent physical,

emotional, and spiritual goals and strengths. These medieval metaphors were useful on historical

and technical levels for understanding a role or aspects of characters who might understand these

metaphors. But the question was, “How do I bring Fiori’s metaphors into the present?”

My idea was to bring Fiori’s animals into a context that worked for me spiritually and

personally, and to combine these with other useful metaphors. I have spent many years studying

such disciplines as Buddhism, Taoism, and other nature-based spiritual traditions, including Na-

tive American spirituality, South American mysticism, and Indian and Japanese spirituality. I

meditated on things like totem spirits, sacred animals, and animal guides which represented at-

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tributes, emotions, and actions that resonated with what I have learned about myself and my ap-

proach to acting and stage combat. I also included Fiori’s own conclusions about what aspects

and attributes each animal represented.

The study and integration of all these metaphors were helpful to use as a bridge between

the physical movement system and the psychotherapeutic and emotional components. This pro-

cess tied into my goal to improve myself, reflect on my own spirituality and emotional self, and,

thereby, improve the art.

My trainer and mentor, Andrea Burchak, and I have taken our shared experiences over

the past two years and used them to adapt a warm-up system for the performance movement and

stage combat. We created our own system of exercises inspired by Fiori’s Measure of a Swords-

man, or Qualities of a Swordsman (Charrette p7) as described in The Segno Page of Fiori’s trea-

tise “Il Fior Di Battaglia” or The Flower of Battle(Charrette p7) and created a vehicle that will

not only help me to both warm-up and use my body more efficiently and comfortably, but will

also help me embody those aspects in the concepts of going onstage for performance and staged

violence. The process includes the judgment of the Lynx, the stealth and strength of the Tiger,

the courage and heart of the Lion, the foundation of the Elephant.

My hope is to use this exercise program both personally and as a teaching tool for my

students. I believe it will help support the skills and systems we are taught as stage combatants,

and help actors inhabit their bodies and their characters more fully and comfortably. I also be-

lieve it is flexible enough to be adaptable to acting alone, without the stage combat element.

In a sense, I am creating and adapting a system from a system. I don’t want to fight; I

want to tell the story of fighting. I believe that I am transforming a martial art into a stage art.

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The work of the last two years has been to reveal a system to bring into the future. I didn’t real-

ize that at the beginning of my program when I was attempting to combine my own discoveries

with my love of stage combat.

Using Gyrotonic® movement and the SPRe® techniques allowed me to explore deeply

within myself and helped me create something impulsively and energetically along the way. The

system is a culmination of my in-depth physical and emotional work with the physical skills of a

stage combatant.

I plan to do a dry run of the Four Animals or animal metaphors, by teaching them to a

colleague and performing a fight with her, then observing her thoughts and reactions to how they

improve her fighting abilities.

I also plan to take my practice to my final project in Colorado, a staging of Henry IV part

1, during which I perform stage combat. I was cast in Colorado Shakespeare Festival as The

Douglas in their 2014 production of Henry 4 part 1. I did this production and used the Four Ani-

mals to effect a greater accessibility in my work. I employed the animal metaphor exercises to

warm up my body/mind and prepare physically and mentally to go onstage before every perfor-

mance. I came to rely on it as an integral part of my pre-show warm-up process.

The following section of this project is a description of my journey to this point, as well

as an overview of the Fiori system, and a step-by-step summary of the Four Animals exercise

practice.

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Chapter II: Evolution

The Journey to This Point

I have embodied some version of an actor or performer my entire life. I can trace my current

practice of acting and stage combat back to my childhood. On a family trip to Europe in the

1970s, on the grounds of Warwick castle, I volunteered for a mock joust for kids—complete with

Tupperware for helmets and Shetland ponies. I played along with the cockney MC who was tell-

ing the story with little kids as his knights.

He whispered in my ear to “accidentally” fall off the pony! I did, and the audience

laughed, and the cockney MC winked at me as if to say, “Well done Yank!” I was thrilled, and

the kids got laughs and applause. More importantly, I had become a knight in the shadow of

Warwick castle. Upon entering the castle’s armory that day after the entertainment, I was able to

visualize myself in the gleaming suits of armor.

My ability to become a character and to “act” came naturally to me. Halloween, in partic-

ular, was a perfect holiday for a kid actor. My mother and sister gave me the yellow Go-Go boots

up to my mid-calf with an inch-high heel. It was difficult to put them on and the vinyl squeaked

and pulled my leg hair off. They also decked me out with a shiny yellow LOUD silk scarf—the

yellow of the boots and the scarf matched. Everything else was built around those garments:

puffy blue shirt, black puffy pants that we stuffed back into the go-go boots, a yellow sash, a

mustache from an eyeliner pen, a costume tricorn hat with yellow trim, and a plastic sword to go

in the sash at my hip. Voila!

It was Halloween, 1975, and I was 11. I had become The Dread Pirate Paul.

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I admit to feeling a little silly with yellow as a unifying color theme. But the thrill of

playing the part was infectious. As the photo shows, I have already accepted the mantle of the

swashbuckler, the musketeer, the swordsman, the knight, the actor, the player, the Dread Yellow

Pirate Paul!

(fig.2)

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I remember that moment partly because the photo survives and partly because my mom

and sister had so much fun dressing me up, that I went along with it. I went trick or treating and

the costume was a big success in the neighborhood. Indeed, the costume was the spark that ig-

nited my imagination—just as the mock joust I performed at Warwick castle.

I was excited to have this attention. As a kid I found the attention and the approval intoxi-

cating, and it’s one of the main reasons why I gravitated to the stage and acting. The fantasy of

the role was easy for me. I have always been a natural at suspending disbelief. I didn’t know why

before—I just knew that it was easy for me. Performing for my family as a kid was a way for me

to distract them from conflict, from unhappiness, and from the uncomfortableness of pain and

sorrow. We were the luckiest Republicans we knew. We had it all: affluence, private education, a

beautiful home, and a loving family. That was true.

But we also had alcoholism, denial, manipulation, emotional punishment, shame and

guilt, and nurture-less and unpredictable parenting. My father never successfully put down the

scotch, and he died an early death at 57 of cirrhosis in 1991. It wasn’t until the past 4 years that I

started to call myself the adult child of an alcoholic, with everything that it means. I love and

miss my Dad. I am more like him than either my brother or my sister.

What does all this have to do with stage combat? I’ll tell you. I was born as a “sensitive.”

I had bright red hair as a kid, and I was always emotional. I am fairly certain that this sensitivity

was an inborn trait. With big emotions, I was also known to be a brat and a screamer. This was

because I was not getting what I needed. The boy who cried wolf. I was also born at 6 months,

and spent the first 6 weeks of my life in a plastic incubator without any skin-to-skin human

touch. To make matters worse, my brother got the mumps during this time, so my family was

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banned from seeing me in the Premature Ward of Stanford Hospital. I didn’t have any real hu-

man touch as a premature infant, so when I got older I used a sword.

There are a few steps in between that are important too. I’m making a joke, but my devel-

opment as a child has impacted my sensitivity to acting and to stage combat. This information

has helped me to understand my practice.

As I got a little older, the severity of the parenting started to kick in. My emotional sys-

tem was already extremely sensitive, and my mother did not believe in emotional children who

misbehaved. Children were to be seen and not heard. The household she occupied as a child

growing up in the 1950s was almost devoid of emotion. She was an only child who grew up dur-

ing the Great Depression and, to make things worse, her father wanted a boy. Her father was

also physically abused by his father, and so lacked an appropriate role model while also harbor-

ing a large pool of untamed demons. Meanwhile, her mother was emotionally detached, and my

mother learned to mimic this habit. My goal is to understand these aspects about myself and my

upbringing so I can make sense of my own emotions.

Needless to say, my parental unit was not a functional combination for me. Nevertheless,

at the end of the day, I was getting more attention and actual love from my father, who was an

alcoholic. I got more nurturing from my older sister than my mother. My dad had no idea what to

do with his emotions either. Where my mother was detached, my father was embarrassed by his

emotions and apparently unable to digest events and feelings.

I don’t know a lot about my father and his childhood, except that he was probably not en-

couraged to show his authentic self and feelings. His father had a gambling addiction, and his

mother was a 300 lb. opera singer who gave up her career to marry “below” her station to my

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grandfather. I think my grandmother was emotionally withdrawn from my father, and may have

used him for her own emotional and physical support. She called my dad “Jacky” well into his

forties. My Dad was also an only child.

Both my parents were both products of the depression and came of age in the 1950s.

They believed they could raise children and did so, but I don’t believe that they did the best they

could. Parenting was different in the 1960s and 1970s. Anyway, I have reconciled the parenting

styles of my parents, and I still love them. The only way I was able to do that was by going down

the rabbit hole, by taking the red pill offered to the character Neo played by Keanu Reeves in the

Hollywood film The Matrix—the pill that reveals the truth.

Why am I attracted to theater and stage combat, and why do I believe that it can do more

than just be what it is? I had never really asked these questions before. These would be the driv-

ing questions of my practice. I felt something different in my undergraduate stage combat class

when I picked up a stage sword for the first time. My senses were channeled into the movement.

It made sense in my body. I could express myself through acting, and I felt that even more

keenly through stage combat. I could imagine what the situation needed to look like, and I could

perform that. I wasn’t the best swordsman out there at first, but the sense of it inspired me.

I could lose myself in it, and it took all of my concentration and attention. My brain tends

to be active, and in choreography I discovered I wasn’t thinking about anything else. It was easy

and thrilling for me to drop into that moment just before the swords come out—wherein I could

become a character who meant business. I could use what I knew about my emotions and chan-

nel them into this physical expression. I could inhabit the knight, the swashbuckler, the hero, the

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villain, the man. The soundtrack played in my head and the orchestra surged. I was not con-

cerned with metaphors. My training gave me the acting tools to understand what the stage com-

bat moment was and what it demanded.

The Beginnings of an Interdisciplinary Practice

In 1994 I received a Bachelors in Fine Arts in Acting from Cornish College of the Arts in

Seattle. My Conservatory training was based in the acting systems of Stanislavski, Grotowski

and classical theater. My senior year in 1994 was the first time I was taught and tested in the

weapon forms of Broadsword, Rapier and Dagger and unarmed stage combat. These were SAFD

certified tests for those forms. This system of testing I have studied for twenty years. I love per-

forming stage combat, and I love teaching it. It feels like what I was born to do—My soul stirred

to action and inspiration.

I learned my craft from a couple of very good teachers, and, over time, mastered all eight

forms: Rapier & Dagger, Broadsword, Unarmed, Single Sword, Sword & Shield, Small Sword,

Knife, and Quarter Staff. Just to achieve certification in all of the weapons is an achievement I

am very proud of. Knowing how to wield these weapons is an evolving and challenging process,

since I must be tested in them periodically to retain my status, using different teachers and chore-

ography.

I also engaged in as much fight choreography and teaching of combat as possible, since I

enjoy working with kids and other actors, passing on my skills, and creating new moves and

scenes through the synergy of working with others. I knew that I wanted something more, to take

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the next step. I wasn’t sure what that was or how to achieve it, but I knew there were some physi-

cal and emotional limitations holding me back.

My work to find a different and better way to perform stage combat began when I discov-

ered I had a poor physical foundation. If the foundation of a house is not built correctly and lev-

eled, the house built on it will eventually twist out of shape. The same thing was happening in

my stage combat performance, although I didn’t know it because I was doing what I had always

done, and getting decent results on stage.

Then, a catastrophic knee injury occurred because of my unstable foundation. Following

my recovery from that, I attended a three-week stage combat workshop that left me exhausted

and physically overwhelmed. I was finally getting the message that the way I had always

looked at my body was not working anymore. What was I doing wrong? And how could I im-

prove it?

Entering my MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program gave me the opportunity to explore

myself emotionally, physically, and professionally. I could combine different tools and disci-

plines as a way to tune my creative instrument: me. At the same time, I was creating a new prac-

tice related to stage combat that I could potentially share with colleagues and students to help

them improve their creative instruments and perform better, safer fights.

I needed a structure for this practice, however, and tools to create it. In the true spirit of

interdisciplinary study, I turned to my historical roots and love of history to find the structure. I

found the tools in cutting edge movement and therapy techniques: Gyrotonic® exercise, SPRe®

(somatic deep massage), psychotherapy, video storytelling, historical research, and the study of

Stanislavsky, Bruce Lee, and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.

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My personal goals became: to learn about myself; to evolve spiritually, physically, emo-

tionally, and somatically; and to improve my art practice and myself. My idea was to make my-

self more available to the art form by improving myself. Goddard’s interdisciplinary program al-

lowed me to use my body and my emotions as a creative entity in theater, and to improve and il-

luminate my instruments. My practice also uses relevant historical metaphors from early medie-

val systems.

My interdiscipline is inside of me. It is a synthesis of the in-depth work I do on my emo-

tions; my efforts to study and learn how my body can move better; and my constant efforts to im-

prove my physical and spiritual availability to this physical acting/story-telling. Through this

practice, I also reach deep inside myself to understand how my own body works emotionally, en-

ergetically, and somatically. The interdisciplinary approach culminates in the self-knowledge I

bring to the work in the form of a better physical “instrument” to perform stage combat.

“The individual who actualizes an intuitive awareness of ki-energy and is able to channel

this energy throughout the body is able to control and extend it out from the body, whether

through vocal or physical action or into active images” (Zarrilli 39)

I believe that when one knows oneself on an in-depth level, creative work will also reflect

that level. This is all based on how I feel when I pick up the sword. I have a very specific bodily

reaction. My glands are stimulated, my instincts respond, my stance lowers, and I move the

sword. How does it feel? How does my body want to move? My practice is to hone those in-

stincts in myself.

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“The substance of the unknown energy ki is not within our [present] understanding. It is a

flow of a certain kind of energy unique to the living organism which circulates in the body. Alt-

hough it is uncertain yet what generates such a function. To be more specific, when the flow of ki

is examined psychologically it can be perceived as an extraordinary sensation, as a lived body’s

self-grasping sensation…” (in Nagatomo 1992b:70) (Zarilli 75)

My choice was about learning my art form, but also about learning about myself. Again there is

the rigor. This has been the work of my practice on as deep a level as I can reach. Tracking my

own experiences to find out why the sword and stage combat and theater still resonate with me.

Hopefully, through this, I can improve my ability and my art form. However, I must first under-

stand and improve myself.

“As the degree of one’s somatic knowledge is refined, one obtains a gradually subtler or

higher degree of psychophysical integration, or attunement, within the body-mind relationship”

(Zarrilli 85).

I am working towards the goal of performance. I seek a body/mind connection that will

allow me to perform complex choreography. But I am also working toward the goal of being a

better, more highly integrated person, more comfortable in my own body, more comfortable with

my emotions, and more able to be present with my wife, my colleagues, and my students.

The Elements Used to Create the Core Four.

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Spirituality. I can trace my spirituality back to my younger days. In sixth grade I played

GOD in the story of Job. The play of Job took place in the church. I was up in the organ bal-

cony—where we were not allowed as children to go. So I was very excited to be in a special

place. I had a white terry cloth robe and a grey beard that hooked onto my ears so it wouldn’t

fall. This description seems cliché to me as I write it now, even stereotypical. However, in 1973,

it was my first real experience with powerful emotions in performance, as well as recognition af-

ter the fact.

After that, I had several transformative experiences with nature at summer camp, and my

formative influences struck me in relation to nature and its beauty. Shortly after that, I was intro-

duced to John Muir and the Transcendentalists. I fancied myself a poet with a strong need to ex-

press my emotions. I started to write in blank books under trees. I was moved by the majesty of

Yosemite and enjoyed the transcendental poetry, and tried to write my own.

I felt that my spirituality was becoming a personal reality. The beauty of nature seemed to

be more religious than any church or even any Christian deity. I still believe this today. I could

interact with nature, while the church felt confining and didactic. I was also becoming involved

in theater in my high school years and enjoying my innate abilities to perform.

It wasn’t really until years later that I started to notice a lack of spirituality in my life. I

always knew that I operated in the world as a deep feeling entity, but it wasn't until graduating

from my Bachelor’s program in acting that a close friend of mine gave me a very significant

book. It was called SHAMBALA: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, by Chogyam Trungpa

Rinpoche.

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Tibetan spiritualism described the real battles inside of us and how to perceive them—

and more importantly, what I could do about them in the here and now. My whole perspective

changed as I contemplated the real battle inside oneself to grow with love for oneself. There are

four animals as well that resonated with me in this writing: Lion, Tiger, Garuda, and Dragon.

(These spiritual animals share some similarities with Fiori de Liberi.)

They are known as the four “dignities.” The practice of the peaceful warrior resonated on

many levels. This perspective came to me when I needed it most. The concepts of loving oneself

as a way to improve one’s self landed in me. I was in a very difficult and challenging time then

and the way of the peaceful warrior made sense and took root. I wanted emotional clarity and or-

der and this discipline provided a means to accomplish that. As it grew, I made decisions that

have directly and ultimately led to this moment. I think it’s one of the reasons why Fiori’s ani-

mals were so clearly philosophical to me, because they lined up with similar Tibetan animal phi-

losophies.

I also explored the idea of egoless-ness a little further with Ekhart Tolle, in his book,

Awakening To Life’s Purpose. Some of the same reasons I discovered Shambala sparked my in-

terest in Tolle, mainly my desire to use my feelings as a way to harness and calm the internal

struggles. All the artists and theater practitioners that I admired carried a joy of life with them

that appeared effortless. What I learned later was that they were no different than me, they had

just practiced some of these perspectives on themselves, their world and their art.

The Society of American Fight Directors. The SAFD is the system of stage combat that I

was trained in, and is the foundation of all other aspects of my stage combat practice. It is a sys-

tem of movement and techniques that are embedded into the choreography of violence that is

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performed for stage and film. It is often the opposite of a martial art training, in that it seeks to

protect its combatants from harm. Not all martial arts are offensive however the storytelling of

violence requires choreographed physical contact defensive or offensive. It is the illusion of vio-

lence with the application of safety and proximity to one’s partner.

The dichotomy of the character/actor safety philosophy was part of the fascination for

me. I could put intent into a violent action or fight choreography, but then restrain the actual

physical impact. The character in an onstage fight may have murderous intent, but the actor with

the SAFD techniques has learned a safe way to employ a blow. I don’t want to hurt my fellow

actor. It is an elusive set of techniques that take as much physical confidence as a real fight.

There are eight weapon forms of the SAFD. In other countries it varies, although there is

an attempt to bring all the requirements into one global agreement. The weapons are: Rapier &

Dagger, Broadsword, Unarmed, Single Sword, Sword & Shield, Small Sword, Knife, and Quar-

ter Staff. Most other forms that happen onstage in the US are adaptations of these eight. The sys-

tem that applies most to the choreography are the Renaissance systems of parries and attacks to

the body.

There are some systems that do not always work with the system of parries, such as knife,

and as the SAFD grows it is adapting to the needs of the forms and the demands for reality on

stage. Using Gyrotonic® movement in my practice is also a kind of physical adaptation and

physical availability that is useful across the weapon forms and any movement onstage or other-

wise.

The SAFD sparked a myriad of interests in me. I was already really interested in military

history, and the SAFD allowed me the potential to live the history. The kid Yellow Pirate in me

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got very excited, and the adult and artist in me saw the potential for a full exploration and ex-

pression of what were, at that point, unformed and unspecific interests and ideas of what I

wanted to do and be.

Gyrotonic® Movement. Gyrotonic® movement was developed by Julio Horvath. “The

goal of the GYROTONIC® Expansion System is to train the body to move from the inside out.

This means that we teach the body to stabilize itself using the muscles closest to the skeletal sys-

tem. The center, or “core,” of that support stems from learning to engage the pelvic floor, trans-

verse abdominals, psoas major, deep rotators of the hip and the top of the hamstrings. Engaging

this network of muscles creates a support system that can both stabilize and allow for a greater

range of motion to occur within a more efficient and balanced body, thereby enabling more dy-

namic movement.”

“The practice of Gyrotonic® movement trains one to become more aware of where their body is

in space and how to self-correct if something feels ‘off.’ It is a process of self-discovery. For

teachers this is vital. This allows for the teacher to experience his/her own ongoing exploration

of their own body which can then be applied directly to the observation of students, how they

move onstage in general and how they move with weapons. The more one is able to see their own

body clearly, such as becoming aware of muscular imbalances or compensation and holding pat-

terns, the more he/she is able to see and help their students obtain an optimum level of perfor-

mance.”

-Leslie Hubbard, Gyrotonic and Yoga Instructor, Principal at The Seattle Changing Room

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More dynamic movement was my goal. Moving from my core was what I needed to

learn. These were only concepts when I started, and I knew intellectually that they would eventu-

ally lead to greater integration. Some of the work the first year was about integration. My body,

historically and somatically, had separated itself. My lower half was not integrated with my up-

per half. The core work was the most intense, rewarding and challenging, and I made it a central

component of the Core Four.

The key to this integration was to strengthen and loosen the deep core muscles that con-

nect the upper and lower halves of my body. This is done through the PSOAS muscle or muscle

of the soul. It’s the muscle system that responds with gut instincts. Intuition. Not only has my

body learned to move from the core, I have learned to trust the information I receive from it.

Gyrotonic® movements and exercises have lined up to my practice of stage combat in re-

markably similar and excellent ways. My task and evolution now is to employ this core quality

of movement to stage combat and acting. I understand how I imagine that movements and chore-

ography should look onstage. But I was perhaps not as confident in application. I don’t feel that

way anymore. Also, through this confidence I have gained the acceptance that, although I may

not perform a move correctly, I can learn and grow with more ease and enjoyment.

“Gyrotonic® movements are spherical by nature, flowing from one to the other without

pause. The choreography of the exercises is personalized for each client's specific needs and

varies from session to session. It is designed this way in order to challenge the client with

changes of direction, tempo and exercise order. In the same way, combat choreography flows

from one move to the next and the order can be arranged and rearranged as the choreographer

24

sees fit. Guided by a certified instructor, breathing is synchronized with the Gyrotonic® practice

to stimulate all of the body.”

— Leslie Hubbard

Leslie Hubbard has been instrumental in helping me with my practice. She was involved

in a video segment during my G4. Leslie’s studio and the work I have done with my Gyrotonic®

Practitioner, Andrea Burchak, has happened at the Changing Room in Seattle for the last two

years on a weekly basis. I chose to work with Leslie in an effort to bring her vast movement and

Gyrotonic® experience together with basic concepts of stage combat.

What she observed in this work with me was the concept that she called ‘sword/body.’

How does the body react organically to the feelings and influences of picking up a weapon and

moving? I knew Leslie would be able to do this quickly because, where I am still developing my

body and movement senses, Leslie is in a completely organic and physically present state. The

results were dynamic, and she was a natural at stage combat.

Most actors I teach or work with are still seeking to inhabit their body organically. So a

lot of learning stage combat is figuring out how to be or look natural with a sword or in a violent

moment. Even the out of control moments require control onstage. This is what the environment

of the Changing Room has given me—training in how to inhabit my body naturally while per-

forming in an unnatural, staged way—twice a week for the last two years of my practice.

Somatic Psychological Recovery : SPRe® “Somatic Psychological Recovery, also known

as SPRe®, addresses the emotional holding patterns within the body. Sometimes, in the move-

ment world, these holding patterns are referred to as blockages or areas of dis-ease and can

25

show up as excessively tight calf muscles, a stuck ribcage, low back pain, shoulders that won't

relax, terrible balance in one leg or the other and a host of other problems. Through manual ma-

nipulation SPRe® bodywork is able to access these holding patterns in a way that allows the

body to create a new, more effective and beneficial pattern with which to move.”

(Jill Ableson, SPRe® Principal Practitioner)

“Somatic Psychological Recovery (SPRe®) was created to bring psychological process and

its physical counterpart together for true body-mind relief. People choose SPRe® when some-

thing feels ‘stuck’ in their bodies and/or in their lives; at such times they are often at a cross-

roads and recognize a need for change.

Stress is a generic word to describe a very personal experience that affects everybody dif-

ferently. SPRe® helps to interpret how your body communicates, for example, chronic pain

(head, neck, back), anxiety, digestive issues, sometimes just an overall malaise or discomfort

that doesn’t have a clear explanation.” (Andrea Burchak SPRe® Practitioner and Gyrotonic

Teacher)

Andrea Burchak has been my SPRe® practitioner as well as my Gyrotonic® practitioner

during my work with Goddard. My somatic journey with her into my own body has been a major

cornerstone of my practice of improving myself to improve my art. It has been life changing.

This has been very difficult work on an extremely personal and intimate level.

“The SPRe® bodywork facilitates a more effective Gyrotonic® practice, and vice versa. Any

teacher who seeks out a practice of continuing education exponentially increases his/her ability

to relate to their students in a meaningful way” (Burchak).

26

The SPRe® practice is in-depth tissue massage, developed out of Rolfing bodywork tech-

niques, but incorporating a therapeutic, emotional element. Having experienced Rolfing, I felt

that it did not address the huge amount of emotions that kept pouring out of me during and after

a session. After a typical Rolfing session, I felt physically better, but emotionally confused and

overwhelmed. My wife suggested SPRe® as she is a Licensed Massage Therapist and has sought

out SPRe® for fifteen years. She has rheumatoid arthritis and finds it very successful for her own

movement.

I tried it and felt that it addressed the complex emotional and psychological issues that I

were being sparked in my work, movement practice, and intense study. I realized through

SPRe® that my body was a storage vessel for very strong and old feelings. The deeper the layer,

the more intense the memory of the emotions.

I also learned throughout this process that my emotions could be addressed and that my

body and soul could learn how to deal with them. This was the rigor and resilience that my prac-

tice revealed. Every new muscle and fascial system that Andrea and I tapped into brought out

new and difficult feelings, and illustrated the complex, and no longer functional, ways I dealt

with emotions. I quickly realized that I had a lot of work to do, and I still do.

But now, after two years, the work is not as painful, my body and cells have learned and

reformed themselves to accommodate the deep tissue exploration. The result has been that my

body sends me messages about what is somatically changing and evolving.

Just recently in dealing with higher stress levels, my body sent me a message to calm

down. The signals that I was hearing from my body had responded to the stress independently of

my critical brain. It took me a couple of days to pick up on what the signals were. When I

27

checked in with my body, I started to put the pieces together. I was also using healthier tactics to

remove stress and observe the reality of the here and now. It was absolute evidence for me that

my body has become more evolved through SPRe® work. It’s actually very exciting, and is the

source of confidence and happiness as well as the joy of creativity for me. This new cellular real-

ity allows me to listen and respond, instead of only react emotionally.

Fiori’s Philosophy/Historical Perspectives/Contextual History. I have chosen the Italian

Medieval sword masters’ system developed by Fiori dei Liberi, so that I may also know more

about the realities of the people who participated in warfare and single combat. I am learning

what they were taught and how I can apply that to what I do in approaching a role in a produc-

tion. One of the main reasons to adapt a 15th century Western European martial system from Italy

is because it lines up more directly with the work that is out there, the work I am asked to do, and

the work that attracts me.

Fiori used a common practice at the time, which was to associate particular animals with

desired qualities, aspects, and attributes. The animals became metaphors for what people were

trying to achieve in living and fighting well. He chose the Lynx, Elephant, Tiger, and Lion, and

then listed their characteristics as he understood them.

“A medieval artist would have understood that a person has four main aspects to

their nature - physical, emotional, intellectual and instinctive - and would be used to seeing these

aspects expressed in symbolic form, such as represented by animals, weapons or tools that par-

took of that aspect's nature. Our artist and his audience would associate these aspects of a per-

son with certain qualities, characteristics and attributes. They would have immediately associ-

ated a lion, say, or a heart, with fire, sudden action, passion, courage and instinctive drives. A

28

bull or elephant would have been immediately associated with earth, strength, stability,

grounded-ness, firmness and physical strength. Swift beasts and arrows would have been associ-

ated with change, and fast flowing movement, while dividers or compasses might be seen as con-

nected with the mind, good judgment, careful discrimination and thought.

http://www.fioredeiliberi.org

I have adapted Fiori’s animals and made them my own to suit contemporary needs. I have

noted the attributes he considered important, and that corresponded with each animal, and added

my own ideas and qualities, derived from my personal experiences and philosophies and my own

spirituality.

The Fiori system was designed to teach fighting skills, as well as help young men with

ways to live honorably and morally, work with others, and succeed in the world of that time. He

used philosophical and esoteric theories as well as martial and tactical philosophies. I like the

philosophy of Fiori’s descriptions on how to be a swordsman. What are the qualities needed? He

spells it out: courage, strength, agility, morality, and self-knowledge. These are things I know

about and can use in a characterization onstage.

For example, the self-knowledge that I have immersed myself in these last years has

made me aware of positive and negative feelings, and aspects of my personality. It takes courage

for me to look at these things and accept them. This is more of an emotional than physical cour-

age, but it has helped me understand the concept of personal courage, as Fiori would have en-

couraged.

I have also increased my physical strength and agility through my movement and somatic

practices, which is something Fiori would also have encouraged his students to do. I know what

29

it is like to be injured and immobile, and what it is like to have to work my way back from

trauma—something the swordsmen from this time would also have experienced. It is not easy,

and again takes physical and emotional courage.

The martial defensive aspects of Fiori’s system, while actually understandable and usea-

ble 600 years later, do not lend themselves to a theatrical staged practice. (In fact, there are mul-

tiple societies worldwide that make it a practice to study, and practice, these techniques.) They

were designed for actual combat and physical engagement, which stage combat does not ask for.

However, the philosophy and personal qualities are very useful. Through the philosophy of

body/mind centering and being aware of one’s own body and movement, proprioception and kin-

esthetic listening are developed.

I think every good actor should embody contextual history. Knowing when and why the

playwright is writing is important in understanding the characters and the plot. I study the history

of fighting because it helps me understand human conflict and the consequences of violence. To

understand historically what that meant is information about the people of the time. Studying the

history of specific people enables a greater understanding of them and how they related to vio-

lence. People’s characteristics are revealed in a moment of violence, which can help when trying

to understand a character. From caveman days, we have had to kill to eat, survive, gain land, and

win dominance and safety for our people.

There are those who state that our culture is more violent, that wars and conflicts are

more prevalent, or that media such as movies and video games have helped us desensitize to vio-

lence. I would argue that violence, killing, and conflict have always existed in our culture, and

were more immediate than they are now. I am drawn to the archaic codes of honor such as the

30

Templar mythology. These codes speak of conduct in the world and to other people. Throughout

our history, peasants, farmers, and common people were either fighting directly or were affected

in some way by fighting, sometimes for many years. I think this has always been the case in hu-

man society; violence has always been part of the dialogue—part of the way we interact and live.

We may be more removed from violence than we used to be, but I don’t think it has increased.

The romantic history around the sword is also very attractive to me, in terms of design,

use, historical context, and materials used. The history of the evolution of weapons is fascinating.

The sword has evolved through time from a blunt club to an elegant device, and knowing what

was going on at the time of each evolution is fascinating. The types of swords, and their evolu-

tion, reflect what people were doing, thinking, and how they were fighting.

Historical context helps me set the stage and build a fight. One would not want to use a

court sword from the Napoleonic wars to stage Julius Caesar, for instance, because the weapons

in use were so different, according to the types of warfare. (Not to say that it hasn’t been done!) I

plan to integrate my love for history into my choreography in the future, as well as into my

teaching. I think giving my students a good grounding in the historical foundations of a work is

one of the most important things I can do.

This is the true meaning of Interdiscipline for me—using all of the skills, interests, prac-

tices, and historical studies that have helped me create a better way of performing combat, act-

ing, and even living.

“To understand the elements, think of a person as having firstly a physical body, then feelings

and emotions, then ideas and thoughts, and then needs and instincts. It is the person that has

31

these four things, or that can operate in these four realms, so the person is central, the animating

spirit…”

www.fioredeiliberi.org

This quote speaks so clearly to me about the combination of my somatic work, movement

practice, therapy, and knowledge and use of history/fight craft. Just as I am an amalgamation of

my feelings, ideas, instincts, and knowledge, my practice going forward using what I’ve learned

in my interdisciplinary studies is a synthesis of these things. Hopefully a balanced one! I am the

figure at the center of the four realms; the animating spirit at the middle of the animal metaphors.

The Plan

I have chosen Fiori’s system for my structure because I believe it lines up historically with my

practice. As a working professional in the field of theater and stage combat, and as a stage com-

bat teacher, fight choreographer, and actor/combatant, I can say that the majority of my work has

been in classical Western European theater and contemporary American theater—so the use of a

medieval Western philosophy seemed to fit.

My goal is to use the system of Fiori as a framework and inspiration for a physical move-

ment warm-up that functions using metaphors on the qualities of a swords-person from medieval

times. This warm-up practice targets aspects of the body/mind that are useful and relevant for dy-

namic movement performance, specifically stage combat and any demanding performance mo-

ment—bodily, spiritually, emotionally, energetically.

32

My focus throughout this program has been to work on myself in an in-depth way

through cognitive therapy and SPRe®, through which I have discovered the value of integrating

my history, physical patterns, and feelings. Working also with Gyrotonic® movement, I have

discovered that essential to any movement is the development and strengthening of core systems

in my body. This includes the psoas, the muscle group that supports movement and joins the up-

per and lower halves of the body.

I think that sharing what I have discovered with my students and colleagues about the

benefits of personal and somatic exploration to both acting and stage combat will be a strong

goal in future work. As an actor/combatant, I no longer believe that I can separate my somatic

and emotional self from the physical actions I am performing.

While I am not a therapist or counselor, I think I would encourage my students and col-

leagues to consider exploring their personal issues with one. Since I already include Gyrotonic®

movement in my choreography sessions through consultation with Andrea Burchak, I will con-

tinue to include her in my practice and choreography. I am also considering taking Gyrotonic®

teacher training myself, so that I can personally support my students and colleagues in their

movement explorations.

Final Project: Henry IV, Part I. The Douglas.

During my G4 semester, I performed a skills test in Single Sword with a colleague. My wife

made the comment while watching the video of this test that it was the best fight she’d ever seen

me do. It made me think about how far I’ve come in the last two years; how much my physicality

33

and physical well-being has changed; how much I’ve learned; and how much what I’ve learned

has changed my skills and abilities as an actor/combatant.

That fight came much more easily than any I had ever done before. I watched my body

on video responding nicely to the moves and the requirements of the choreography and the

weapon. I had worked with my trainer, Andrea, on ways to improve my movements and actions,

and I could really see the difference. It seemed like I was reaching a more integrated, higher self,

as a combatant.

The Creation of the Core Four is my final portfolio work. However, I knew I had to also

have a final project, and I knew I wanted it to be some sort of dramatic production, most likely

one I created myself. In the time between G4 and G5 residency, I was given a much bigger, and

scarier, opportunity.

A fight master with the Colorado Shakespeare Company sent out a call for an actor/com-

batant to perform as The Douglas in their production of Henry IV, Part I—my favorite of Shake-

speare’s plays. The actor would need to be an accomplished fighter as well as actor, and some-

one who might also like to do some teaching while in Colorado. My wife and I decided that I

should just go for it and send in an audition video and my resume, although I wasn’t sure what

my chances were. We sent in the video from my Single Sword test, knowing it was the best ex-

ample of my work.

Often considered Shakespeare’s most sophisticated history play, the unquiet reign of

Henry IV, following the murder of Richard II, introduces the Bard’s greatest comedic character,

34

Falstaff, the bawdy, crafty knight-adviser to Prince Hal. As the action moves from political spar-

ring between the king and the rebellious Hotspur to the clash of swords in battle, the prince be-

gins a journey toward his heroic reign.

The character of The Douglas, while relatively minor, is a fun, physical role to play. The

Douglas is supremely confident in his abilities. He believes in Hotspur and is loyal to him, and

he never questions his physical abilities. There is no doubt about what he is there to do—hack

everyone to bits! He is strong and capable and knows how to fight. The Douglas appears un-

shakeable, although he becomes shakable towards the end of the play, snapping and actually dis-

appearing completely. His fate is unknown.

To my surprise, I got the part! I was nervous, but excited. I’m not sure I would have felt

strong enough or capable enough to even do the role if not for the intense integration work of my

program. I now have a greater physical conditioning, flexibility, and understanding of how my

body moves. I’m excited to see what the choreography process will look like, since I will be

closely involved in developing the fight. I’m also excited to feel how my body responds to these

new demands.

My goal was to bring the Core Four to the choreography process and to rehearsals as an

experiment in whether it will improve my performance and physical abilities. I believe that using

the Core Four will ultimately help my physical skills and my acting abilities. Being more flexible

and comfortable in my body can only help my acting.

Being cast at Colorado Shakespeare Festival in the summer of 2014 in my G5, I was able

to test the Core Four in direct and immediate application for performance. I achieved my goals

35

and learned about how the Core Four could adapt with any given circumstance or need for my-

self or anyone. It was exciting to put this new system to the test and it became an integral part of

my preparation to go onstage and successfully employ complex fight choreography.

I truly feel that it was some of the most embodied, most highly integrated performance of

my work so far. I was fighting with a Scottish one-handed broadsword and an axe, a combination

I’ve never used before, but one I really enjoyed. It was exhilarating to inhabit the character of

The Douglas, with his supreme self-confidence, knowing that I, personally, have a greater self-

confidence and stronger abilities than I have ever felt in performing stage combat.

36

Chapter III: The Core Four in Theory

“To describe a living exercise on paper is no more possible than it is to write a description of a

sound.” - Joseph Chaikin

Fiori uses four animals to illustrate his philosophies of combat and right living: Elephant, Tiger,

Lion, and Lynx. Each represents various metaphors, traits, strengths, and attributes to aim for as

a swordsman. I have adapted them for my use in stage combat. In my method, as shown by the

illustration at the beginning of this document (fig.1), the Elephant represents the base, founda-

tion, feet and legs; the Tiger represents the core, the guts, intuition, and safety distance; the Lion

represents the heart, chest, breathing, and intention; the Lynx is the pinnacle, representing inte-

gration, the head, decisions, and inspiration.

I am referencing Fiori’s work through the translations and concepts of Guy Windsor, a

swordsman, writer, and entrepreneur who has studied Fiori extensively. He translated Fiori’s

work from 1409, and has published several books on historical Western European martial arts.

Mr. Windsor is highly regarded in the Western European martial arts movement and founded

The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland in 2001.

37

In 1992, Windsor enrolled at Edinburgh University, where his studies in English Litera-

ture, Biology, and Spanish took a back seat to his immersion in the martial arts, including T’ai

Chi Chuan, Okinawan Kobudo, Shukokai Karate, and Aikido. He also studied fencing at the Uni-

versity club, and represented the University on a few occasions. From 1993-1994 he was in

charge of sabre training for the club.

During his first year at Edinburgh University, he met the fellow enthusiasts with whom

he would start the Dawn Duelists society in 1993-94. The Dawn Duelists Society is an historical

fencing society dedicated to the study of European Martial Treatises in their original authentic

context. The Dawn Duelists Society still exists today, and offers classes and study groups around

this subject matter.

Mr. Windsor has a broad and deep training in Western swordsmanship, and has con-

ducted research into most of the recorded swordsmanship styles between 1300 and 1800. He is

also a specialist in the works of Fiori dei Liberi and Ridolfo Capoferro.

Windsor translated Fiori’s work from 1409 as a way for present day combatants to access

and use historic information. I have found his translations to be very helpful in learning and un-

derstanding the animal metaphors as Fiori intended them, as well as in imagining my own meta-

phors, attributes, and aspects. I explored Fiori in my G1 and Capo Ferro in my Practicum. I have

contacted Mr. Windsor, and talked about my work and my thoughts about his book The Swords-

man’s Companion, and my interdisciplinary practice of theater and stage combat.

I have combined Fiore’s metaphors with attributes, symbolism, and aspects from other

spiritual traditions that I have studied and that have influenced my life and work for the past

38

twenty years. The universality of these animals throughout different cultures and spiritual sys-

tems signifies how important they are as martial, emotional, moral, and behavioral symbols.

The physical aspect of the practice is composed of exercises that both represent and chan-

nel the attributes and metaphors of each animal. They were designed to be used by the ac-

tor/combatant, but they are flexible in their use, and can be applied solely to acting or in a teach-

ing environment. Children, particularly, would enjoy the movements. There is an exercise for

each animal. It entails 4 reps per exercise for each of the 4 animals.

39

Lynx

(fig.3)

“Prudentia/Prudence: No other creature can see clearer than I, the Lynx, who always

brings posture and measure” (Windsor 39).

“The Lynx’s Prudentia can mean wisdom, prudence, or foresight … the Lynx symbolizes

using one’s assessment of the opponent and of the fight to one’s advantage. The Lynx’s compass

enhances this understanding, symbolizing the ability to know and gauge proper distance for

techniques and, by extension, where and when to do them” (Charrette 7).

Fiori, as translated by Windsor, about the Lynx.

40

Fiori puts the Lynx at the top of the human figure in his sketches from the SEGNO page

of his martial treatise, Il Fior di Battaglia or The Flower of Battle from 1409. The Lynx is asso-

ciated with the higher functions of the body and mind, and is placed right above the head with a

compass in his grasp, signifying to me, precision and thought in action, and self-discovery. The

concept here is about “military prudence” in battle, the opposite of rashness:

To me, the Lynx is our apex, our beginning, representing such things as psychological

self-exploration/therapy, integration, perception, perspective, mental preparedness, and safety

distance/believability of action. Lynx energy must be present at the outset of a project, whether

that is choreographing, performing stage combat, acting, teaching, or even living. And yet, it

must also be brought in at the end of a project. Lynx energy encompasses and represents both the

initiation of ideas and options at the beginning, and the integration of realizations, philosophies,

and techniques in the finished product.

I think of Lynx energy as primarily mental: the integration of acting techniques, move-

ment techniques, emotional awareness, historical context, and the mechanical and safety-related

aspects of creating choreography. The Lynx, to me, means an integration of ALL of the elements

that I have studied and used to create my system. But it must also be managed or else the work of

learning and building choreography can become too complex and heady.

The Lynx is a powerful metaphor as a spiritual symbol. Many traditions associate the

Lynx with perception and clear sight, intentionality, possible use of second sight, using one’s

own instincts, self-awareness, and anticipating the movements of others. The last attribute is in-

41

valuable in stage combat, where we are signaling our movement intentions to our partners, judg-

ing the space available between us, and performing a move while relying on our partner to re-

spond to what we have decided between us so that safety is maintained. We go very slowly at

first.

Self-awareness

I believe Lynx energy is involved in developing our abilities to see the unseen and,

sometimes, unattractive aspects of ourselves. The work that I have done in my therapeutic ses-

sions supports this. It has been a difficult, in-depth process, but I have made real progress in self-

awareness and exploring my motivations and reactions. This work is essential in understanding

the psychology of characters that actors are playing; their motives, intentions, and the reasons be-

hind what they do.

I am giving a great deal of thought to this aspect in my work with the character, the Earl

of Douglas, in Colorado for Colorado Shakespeare Festival. He is both a simple and complex

character. He knows exactly what his goals are and how to achieve those goals—he is straight-

forward and focused in his purpose and loyalties. He is an accomplished fighter. Yet his fatal

flaw is his over-confidence and inflexibility, which mirror Hotspur, the main antagonist to the

Throne of England who seeks to make war on King Henry and his son Prince Hal.

I must put myself into that place of physical confidence and identify with the realities of

being a man who is aware of his skills and prowess in a time when battle was very important. I

42

identify my need to tell the kinetic story of humanity faced with life and death struggles about

things they care about, and communicate that to an audience. The Lynx helps to clarify and de-

scribe the reasons and metaphors that are part of me and my creative spirit, as well as my capac-

ity as a human being. I tie myself to the historical reality to build a character and the suspension

of disbelief required to fuel and bring the fantasy to life.

These are tenets of the Lynx. I must have my wits about me in an acting moment and

stage combat. There is a mental agility that one seeks to incorporate when stepping out onstage.

Certainly seeing oneself in a true light and understanding how things work inside oneself, there

can be clarity. The work of my practice has been to understand myself and my body/mind, so

that I can enhance and inform my acting and stage combat.

“In the Indian epic tale Bhagavad-Gita, the warrior Arjuna is being instructed by Krishna

to slay the enemies inside himself…the warrior ethos is elevated to a loftier and nobler plane—

the plane of the individuals inner life, to his struggle to align himself with his own higher na-

ture” (Pressfield 80).

In my opinion, the technique of the spiritual warrior is to see obstacles within him/herself

and judge them as what they are, to perceive them. This internal battle is the one that allows me

to evolve into a better person, husband, combatant, actor, artist, teacher, etc. This is where I be-

lieve the Lynx can be applied to a deeper spiritual meaning and metaphor in my life, or anyone’s

for that matter.

Guy Windsor agrees with this perspective: “Personally, I practiced for ten years before

coming to the realization that my practice did not get left behind when I hung up my weapon. It

stays with you in the way you move, in how you arrange your time, and in how you deal with

43

people. The principles of tactics and strategy learned ingraining underpin the way I deal with

confrontation at any level. But most importantly, the practice crystallizes your approach to life in

general. It becomes a testing ground for character: it holds up a mirror that cannot be ignored.

It exposes every flaw, every weakness and thereby allows you to overcome them” (Windsor 28).

Actor training helps me to believe and incorporate the emotional struggles and conflicts

of my characters. But it’s not easy. In fact, it’s very difficult. I am now using the therapeutic dis-

coveries and tools given to me by my therapist as a way of inhabiting my characters in a way I’d

never done before I started undergoing therapy. This is also part of my practice, wherein improv-

ing myself also improves my art.

Establishing Intention.

The qualities of sight, judgment, prudence, and intention align beautifully with stage

combat and acting. These are higher brain functions that deal more with the mind than the body,

in my opinion. My focus as the Earl of Douglas is to establish my existence and my goal—in this

case, defeating everybody I fight. Almost every time I come on stage, I announce my name and

really focus in on the person I’m going to be fighting as my prey. I let the audience see my inten-

tion to fight and to win. The Douglas is brash and swells with martial confidence as Shakespeare

wrote him, a Scottish warrior of renown.

“In order to perceive clearly, our attention, concentration, motivation, or desire must ac-

tively focus on what it is we are to perceive. The aspect of perceiving we have named ‘active fo-

cusing.’ It patterns our interpretation of sensory information, and without this active focusing

our perception remains poorly organized” (Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen 6).

44

What we are talking about, in my opinion, is intention: a moment just before a fight, or

the story of that moment before acted onstage; the moment where we are faced with a real threat

and the moment we decide what to do. I often encourage actors during fight choreography to let

the audience see them make the decision to take action, to see the intention they might be gather-

ing.

In the Spaghetti Westerns, Clint Eastwood narrows his eyes and keenly judges his targets

just before the quick draw. The camera cuts to an extreme close-up shot of just his eyes perceiv-

ing and narrowing. There is no doubt what comes next. It is the point of reading the situation and

deciding how to respond.

According to Windsor, “The Lynx and the dividers are there to remind the student to be

prudent, to carefully judge distance and time, and to learn to predict the actions of his oppo-

nent” (Windsor38).

As far as the theatrical art of stage combat is concerned, it doesn’t get any better than

that. Certainly, these qualities were beneficial for a medieval fight as Fiori taught. This is the in-

tersection of Fiori’s martial philosophies and a philosophy of stage combat that could be shared.

There are similarities to the martial defensive systems and the story of them on stage. For our

modern audience, I want to understand and be able to perform the given circumstances or a

story of violence. Personalizing the given circumstance of a scene or play was imprinted on me

as an undergraduate in acting.

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If I am imagining being a character who might use violence, what would I need to have

or need to be or need to believe in order to carry out violence? Obviously, the Douglas, as Shake-

speare wrote him, has his two hands, his weapons, his muscles, and his unwavering belief in

what he is doing.

Establishing space/partnering.

One of the goals of the Lynx is to judge distance and measure before and during a fight.

This is true in my stage safety technique. The actor measuring one’s distance in any situation is

about seeing different perspectives—this is true for the realities of being onstage.

When I start with new stage combat students, we start with the establishment of space.

It’s called safety distance. Safety distance, as described by the SAFD, is a safe enough distance

away from your partner that you do not hit him/her. “Out of distance” and “in distance” are also

observed and learned. There is a happy medium that is measured by both stage combatants. After

a time of watching people find this distance and working with it in one’s own body, there is a

sensibility towards it.

Considering and exploring this distance can enable one to develop a threshold wherein

the tension can be built as the fighters get closer, and are then able to reach each other. Other-

wise, if this threshold is ignored or overlooked, the danger is not totally believed by an audience.

What is the reality of what the performers are doing in a kinesthetic relationship to one another?

And when does that threat or conflict become real? When contact is eminent.

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This is a great tension builder to start choreography. The proximity becomes much

greater when stage combatants hold sharp knives. During my G1 & G2, I took a knife workshop

and worked with some of the best stage combat fight masters at this form in the SAFD. Many of

the fight masters and instructors had advanced knife training, such as military and other actual

martial systems. We discussed where the threshold was for people with sharp knives, and the dis-

tance was understandably much farther away. I often observe this threshold overlooked in chore-

ography, and it can be staged in many ways.

The Lynx metaphors support this with an affinity for perception and judgment of a given

situation that can be acted and used in the scene prior to engaging in choreography. It often can

be subtle and it takes experience to do it well. This is difficult. The stage craft requires that we

not hurt each other, yet it still happens. Even with the best actors I know in stage combat, every-

one has a battle scar story of when they got hit.

During rehearsals in Colorado, the less-experienced combatants had a harder time judg-

ing safe fighting distance and tended to close the gap that must be maintained between combat-

ants, the faster they got. Also, when moving from rehearsal space to the stage, we had to learn a

whole new layout and feel for how much space we had. We all had difficulty adjusting to the

new dimensions of the theater and safely altering the choreography.

I found it to be helpful to warm up with two Lynx exercises: “Tipping the torso, with all

the variant movements,” and “rolling through and down the spine.” These helped me be loose

and more able to adapt my fight movements to any physical environment. I had more flexibility

which allows the Lynx sense of perception and analysis in strategy.

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As an accomplished stage combatant, I was also able to use my ability to perceive the

safe distance between myself and my less well-trained partners. I was also able to adjust my own

body movement and weapon movement to compensate. This is a good example of mental part-

nering during a physical fight.

Partnering.

The task of the Lynx is to embody the present and reach out with one’s perceptions to-

wards one’s opponent. In stage combat we call it partnering, and it is one of the most important

and integral sensory techniques that we apply to onstage combat. Just before a fight onstage, I try

to connect energetically with my partner as we enter into choreography. Hopefully, that relation-

ship has been established already just by being on stage with someone else.

According to the Partnering Paradigm by SAFD Fight Masters Brian Byrnes and Ricky

Ravitts, a good partner:

• Shows an appreciation for his/her partners work. Thereby enhancing confidence and per-

formance.

• Has an awareness of his/her partner (both physical and acting relationship to oneself).

• Has an awareness of the fight as part of a larger stage picture (incorporating both physical

stage awareness and how the fight scene supports the play as a whole).

As we proceed, I am present in a deep listening moment: active listening and kinesthetic

listening. I listen with my heart open and my soul calm. The information washes over me and

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into me, and I allow it to land on me and prepare to return the energy. Just like I would throw a

ball back and forth to a fellow actor, so I do with energy, dialogue, intention, or moves in chore-

ography.

I do NOT deliver my moves in stage combat until my partner is ready to receive them.

We do this for safety reasons, making sure that our partner knows our intent and is ready to re-

ceive it. I can non-verbally read and perceive his or her signals. We establish our brand of com-

munication throughout the choreography. I teach these methods and I look for them. It is part of

the safety techniques. It is also basic to an acting scene, no matter what an actor might be doing

in a scene.

“The victim (the person who is having violence done to them) is always in control. Part of

keeping the victim in control is using proper cues and proper distancing between partners as

they practice” (Zuko 49).

I have my share of incidents where I was actually hit. I have some very small scars that I

wear proudly. I’m happy to lift my shirt up to show these badges of war and blood. Well, maybe

some discoloration and bruising … no blood, thank God!

One of the actual hits I got was during an SAFD Skills Proficiency Test for the Small

Sword. The end of the fight was a thrust from behind the back by my opponent to my kidney or

my right lower back. We were both facing downstage so the “kill” deception happened upstage

of our bodies, where the dulled blade can be placed on my back flat and I don’t actually get

stabbed, yet it is hidden from the audience.

My partner could not actually see where his sword tip was going, so we had to set up the

“kill” moves specifically so that the illusion would work. And it did work. It was a trick for his

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character at the last moment, the last ditch effort to win, turning the tide to victory! But to pull it

off and bring it up to performance level, we had to rehearse it and find where our bodies needed

to line up so that we didn’t have to look at the move exactly. We worked to judge the distance,

and then repeat the physical action the same way every time. Repetition is the key. My job was

to see and judge the set-up, putting my body in the right place for my partner at the right time to

end the fight.

This was all choreographed and rehearsed. When my partner, who was a larger man than

me, went to end the fight, he actually stuck me pretty good in the back. Thankfully, it did not

break the skin, but he jabbed me pretty hard. He was rightfully concerned that he had actually

hurt me. It was a mistake, but I felt the welt on my back. We had done the fight well, and the

choreography really sang as we moved through it. However, this kind of contact can be a failing

grade for these SAFD skills tests.

Believability: the audience perception.

The martial or tactical level would be to understand a specific move offensively or defen-

sively in its real life, real time application and intent; its tactical usage. What is the move or se-

quence of moves trying to do? This is how I first learned stage combat from a teacher who could

jump between actual martial tactics to what a move would need to look like onstage for an audi-

ence. That way, I could play the intention of a move, but in theatrical reality it might be very dif-

ferent.

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I have worked with, performed with, choreographed, and taught actors who have martial

arts training. On almost every occasion, they have become a liability to themselves and their

partners in a theatrical setting. The martial arts training seeks to embed its physical responses to

a state in which the practitioner does not think about his or her response. These impulses are in-

grained into the training, intentionally. Western European and Eastern martial practices have this

in common. The Eastern techniques also have the student entering into a very close space to the

body, so that one can strike or defend or disable. Whatever the intention, they train to make con-

tact with another person. Training in a martial art doesn’t always work well in theatrical stage

combat because the SAFD works to not make contact with one’s partner.

Although martial training can be good to have, it is extremely difficult to unlearn, and it

looks like someone is performing a martial art on stage—everyone knows what Eastern martial

arts moves look like, and they wouldn’t fit into an Elizabethan-era fight unless there was a con-

cept being imposed over the original story. Romeo and Juliet staged in the 50s, for example, in-

stead of Elizabethan London.

There is quite a bit of style blending these days between Eastern and Western stage com-

bat, but I’m not sure the stage combatants at the Globe Theater in the 1590s in London were us-

ing those techniques. This is also why I have moved from describing my practice from martial

arts to movement. My practice involves storytelling, not physical defensive contact unless chore-

ographed, controlled and safe.

I was trained in the Stanislovski system, as well as aspects of the Grotowski method of

acting. Simplified, their theories use the entire body in acting as a way to fully express objectives

in a moment. Since I am incorporating so much of the Gyrotonic® movement into my practice, I

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intend to focus on it even more—maybe even receiving training as a Gyrotonic® practitioner in

the future. I think there are ways I could help my students and colleagues access parts of the

bodies that they never have before, giving them more to work with in the moment.

The industry of theatrical stage combat has evolved and become more demanding around

the believability of choreography. This is the place to start to rectify that perspective. That’s why

I try not to give the actors choreography they can’t do. Otherwise, they will spend all their time

worrying about getting the moves right, when the essence is commitment to the acting moment

and the character. I like to call it “Acting 101.” It boils down to: What are the basics of the mo-

ment? How do we achieve that and serve the play?

It is usually the inexperienced choreographers who have physical facility, but not experi-

ential maturity. They create choreography that actors may find difficult or that doesn’t convey

the objective of the characters, but which may “look” good. There are also many choreographers

that can create a fight, but fall short of telling the story of the piece; I have seen choreography

that seems disjointed or just doesn’t fit because the choreographer doesn’t understand the acting

requirements.

I am working towards an organic integration so that I don’t have to think about it on

stage, and I encourage my students to do the same. The performance side of this practice is to in-

tegrate all of it in order to forget it. I must trust that I have memorized everything so I can go on

stage and let the performance happen organically. Do the work to forget it. If I'm thinking about

my lines, I am not fully listening and reacting to the scene I’m in. If I am thinking only about the

moves of a stage fight, then I am not fully in that fight. Stage combat is still about acting.

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When performing this posture, I encourage my students to focus on integrating the total

experiences they have had as people, actors, movers, and combatants. I want them to use their

instincts, their judgment, and intellect. I want them to think about their perceptions and what

their partners might be perceiving, and I urge them to be aware of the space of the fight, and an-

ticipate their partner’s actions. I also encourage them to think about the historical context of the

fight they will create/engage in, and the weapon and movement choices they will be making.

Colorado Shakespeare Festival 2014, Photo Tim Orr. (fig.4)

Lynx Warm-up.

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The goal of this series is to “wake up” the body and senses, and oxygenate the core mus-

cle groups. These series are intended to help any actor prepare for going onstage. As I move

through the series, I am being mindful of: judgment, perception, posture, measure, distance, sight

Tipping the torso (this helps spatial perception and equilibrium):

seated

eyes closed

spine straight

north, south, east, west, Figure 8’s

The Changing Room, Seattle, 2014. Photo by Joy Walker. (fig.5)

Lower abdominal squeeze in center (this targets the core) in place, with spirals left side and

right side.

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Rolling through and down the spine:

Standing

• hang over legs

The Changing Room, Seattle, 2014. Photo by Joy Walker. (fig. 6)

• add bending knees

• over toes, sits bones

• toward the sky

• add reaching through the spine with a flat back

• repeat roll down over right leg and left leg

Propeller exercises involving Gyrotonic® equipment

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Elephant

(fig. 7)

“Keep your back straight, your legs firm, and your feet on stable ground” (Windsor 39).

The Elephant is our basis, the literal foundation of my practice—emotional and physical. Ele-

phant energy symbolizes the core, which I think is the essential place to start when performing

movement of any kind. To me, it represents Gyrotonic movement involving the core, strength,

foundation, balance, stability, and support, integrating all parts of the body, as well as awareness

of where one’s body is in space. You can’t get far in a fight without an established foundation

that allows you to move easily, as well as a thorough understanding of the potential meaning of

the movement to your body.

Obviously, the Elephant represents great strength due to its size and power, but to me, it

also represents loyalty, balance, stability, and a connection between the mind and the body. I

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equate Elephant energy with my Gyrotonic® movement practice, in terms of the development of

a solid foundation beneath me, and the discovery of my core and its importance. I also think of

Elephant energy in terms of good body mechanics—the basic footwork that underlies every sin-

gle fight move, and a commitment to the full range of the move.

Many traditions associate the Elephant with physical strength and stability upon the earth,

as well as balance of its large bodily structure. Elephant energy can represent commitment and

calm presence and a connection to wisdom. Presence and calmness are key to inhabiting an act-

ing moment onstage, when it can be very nerve racking.

In some spiritual systems, Elephant represents the removal of obstacles and barriers,

communication, intelligence, and compassion. In the natural world, it is observed that they are

highly intelligent creatures, loving to their young and family connections.

The Elephant is probably the most important metaphor for me after the Lynx. Not only

am I resonating currently with the technical metaphors, but the spiritual and emotional metaphors

could not be more accurate to me as well. Looking at my practice through the lens of this system,

my work with the Elephant has been the most rigorous and the most evolutionary. I have funda-

mentally changed how I move. To me, in context of the mechanical and biological realities of

movement, the Elephant represents the foundation, as it does for Fiori.

Just as it does for dancers, this foundation is what everything is built on. Without a foun-

dation, or a base, expressive movement can appear empty. There is no confidence in the core,

and light cannot emanate from the heart. Without a foundation, the heart does not sufficiently

bring nourishment and blood to a flowing, fluid biological body.

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As I have delved and dredged and mined my core these past two years and before, I have

experienced and evolved from my past into a confident reality. This reality has certainly been

shaken and punched and stabbed and slapped—but a major artery has not been hit or cut. Alt-

hough some bones and ligaments have been broken and torn, these have been repaired and they

have become a warning for future evolution—such as my right knee injury and reconstructive

surgery.

When I was rehearsing Macbeth in 2010 for Greenstage Theater, I suffered a serious in-

jury. I discovered my connection to the Elephant metaphor after going through this experience. I

completely tore my patellar tendon off my knee cap when I hopped off a small platform on my

way to kill Banquo (in a production of? Shakespeare’s MacBeth) with a dagger in my hand.

That event lines up identically in metaphoric context with me and my work. I did not

have an idea of what a foundation was; I didn’t want to be where I was; I didn’t believe in what I

was doing at rehearsal in the play. I felt unsupported, and I was pushing the edge of my limits

and beyond into trauma and injury.

My body was reacting somatically to the emotions I was experiencing. It was a clear sign

that I did not want to be a part of that show and, indeed, I couldn’t be after reconstructive knee

surgery. But it seemed to me that my body was sending me very loud and painful signals, and it

took an injury for me to start listening. It was also some of the most acute pain I’ve ever experi-

enced. Facing this vulnerable reality, I began to really observe myself and the way I moved. I

had an urgent need to understand why catastrophic knee damage was happening and what I could

do about it.

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The healing after surgery was one of the first tests that my wife, then girlfriend, and I sur-

vived in our relationship. I was helpless and had to rely on her to take care of me. She did, and I

am lucky because of it. Together, with physical therapy and listening to my wife, I was intro-

duced to Gyrotonic® exercise for rehabilitation, and for reinventing my fundamental approach to

stage combat.

This is when I found the courage to follow the “rabbit down the hole,” to take the red pill

that Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, takes in The Matrix, and really learn how to change and what

that means. I wanted to learn the truth about myself and my body. I started my MFAIA studies at

Goddard the following year.

Core work.

I learned about the psoas from Gyrotonic® movement. I didn’t previously know that the

psoas muscle, as a major muscle in the human body, is responsible for stabilizing the base of the

spine, allowing the spine to flex, and rotating the hips for a free range of movement. When kept

limber, the muscle functions smoothly with others to support an upright posture and a flexible

lower spine and hips, however, most of us aren’t even aware of our psoas muscle, and we don’t

do a good job of keeping it limber.

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(fig. 8)

I had some knowledge in kinetics and anatomy from my undergrad in acting. I still use

some of those techniques that are applicable. However, I realized that I had incorporated them

incorrectly in my body. This was obvious to me in the ambulance on the way to the emergency

room. Something clearly needed to change.

The work of just getting to my core has been the most significant. I knew a lot of things

about the nature of performance movement technically, but I did not know it in my body and in

my cells—or in my psoas, my foundation. The more I learned about the structures of the legs

connected to the pelvis and torso, the more I understood the specifics about why I blew out my

right knee.

One reason was that I had a poor foundation. I had no strength in my adductors in my

legs to allow for lateral movement. This can be a significant part of choreography and fight

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movement. We must be able to move quickly to the sides and backwards with our lower body,

while supporting the upper body’s movements.

(fig. 9)

The consequences are dire for those that cannot change their body and move in a differ-

ent direction. Bruce Lee understood this and based his foundation on this kind of adaptability and

resilience:

“The importance of adaptation - The inability to adapt brings destruction”

(Bruce Lee and Little 105)

I destroyed my knee partly because of an inability to adapt. I had a good surgeon and my

knee is strong now. Part of my process to teach or perform stage combat is to wear a brace and a

wrestling kneepad on top of that. I have dealt with my body compensating for an injured joint. It

61

still responds and gets painful if I am not using it correctly. I can perform without the knee sup-

port, but the fear of re-injury keeps me from it. During my work in the gym training and strength

building, I don’t wear knee protection, but in the classroom and onstage I do.

Listening to the information that my knee is sending me has become another kinesthetic

listening point that I am now fully attending too. Giving a voice to these clear signals of somatic

information has also been an integral part of my artistic and spiritual process.

“The individual who actualizes an intuitive awareness of Ki-energy and is able to channel

this energy and is able to control and extend it out from the body, whether through vocal or

physical action or into active images” (Zarilli 39).

A lot of the work of my practice has been to understand the structures of the lower half of

my body. Directly connected to that exploration has been the effort to integrate the lower and up-

per halves of my body. I also knew that this is where I needed to go spiritually and emotionally

when we got into the psoas. The legs can’t do the work of the Elephant and the foundation if they

don’t have the support of the real base of the psoas. They need each other.

I am finding in my work in Colorado—as the Earl of Douglas, in Henry 4 Part 1—that

because of the choreography, I am using my foundation and core in a different way than I have

in the past. My work with Andrea has been about standing tall, using my core, and pushing my

shoulders back and down. The choreography for my character has me hunching down more than

I am used to, pulling my shoulders forward. As the fight director described, I have been assigned

the role of “The Hulk” in this play, to fight and cause mayhem, and I am trying to embody that.

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I find I am using my core even more in this different position. I have to have a strong

foundation in my legs, psoas, and abdominal muscles to be able to support and sustain the posi-

tion, and then fight from it and move around the stage. I am also having to move laterally from

this position to do the strikes and parries required by the choreography. It is really making me

aware of Elephant energy and the work I have done accessing my core and establishing my foun-

dation.

I can say at this moment that, after the work of the last two years and the rigor of my

physical practice, my psoas is the strongest muscle in my body. When I blew my knee I did not

have any real strength in the muscle systems in my legs. Those muscles are integral to lateral

movement, a great deal of which is used in combat. This is the key to the performance move-

ment, the lateral confident movement: adaptability, integration.

Colorado Shakespeare Festival 2014, Photo Tim Orr. (fig. 10)

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Maintaining a foundation.

In the Tibetan tradition, the Elephant represents calm presence possessed by one who is

on the path. (Beer 60). I can think of no better representation of being on the right path than my

practice of mindful walking.

For the last several years, or at least as long as I have lived in the Seattle area, I have

walked around a small lake, called Green Lake. It is an excellent walk, rain or shine. What does

this have to do with my practice? Everything. The Elephant walks with intention—not quickly,

but solidly—impacting with the earth, using their leg muscles, feet and toes to balance and inter-

act with the ground. The Elephant is connected with all four feet to the ground.

One of my ways to achieve integration has been to walk the lake with the same physical

goals of integration in mind as I walk: core engagement, breath, balance, and grounding. I en-

gage Elephant energy; the energy of being on the right path, being grounded in my feet and

lower body. My goal has been to learn the Gyrotonic® core integration to a point at which, like

acting, the posture and technique are present organically and fundamentally.

I want a specific relationship with the ground, and I want my feet grabbing and working.

I want to feel my relationship to the earth. This is a major part of my personal practice. Being

grounded with a solid foundation is absolutely a goal that intersects almost all aspects of my

work and life. I engage with integrated aspects of my body and open my personal energy up at

the same time. My skeleton is starting to align itself when I walk with breath, and my shoulders

are dropping.

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When I walk around the lake, I am often by myself with my thoughts. This is an excellent

opportunity to give my thoughts and emotions space, in which I’ve had success with allowing

creative processes to inform my work during the past two years. It has become a tool for me to

self-comfort and a time for meditation. I use this walk to connect to the goals of my practice:

physical and emotional integration in my body, and how my body moves and feels. Some of my

best work in stage combat has been when I have been grounded, literally. My relationship to the

ground is key to being successful and proficient in my art form. My physical and somatic goals

walking around the lake have been to integrate the learning and somatic rearranging and explora-

tion I have done.

The foundation of the Elephant is my connection to my core, integrated with my connec-

tion to the ground. When I am performing, either acting or including stage combat, I always start

with the character’s shoes. It is very important for me to establish how the character interacts

with the ground, and shoes embody that awareness.

When performing a fight in character, I start wearing the boots or shoes of that character

as soon as possible while rehearsing the combat. This helps me feel their possible relationship to

the earth, and how they walk on it. I refer to it as “creating a character from the ground up.”

The Earl of Douglas’ boots are combat boots. When I put them on to practice the chore-

ography, they made me feel slower—not as light in the movement. The boots are heavy, so I’m

having to readjust my relationship and engagement with my adductors and core. I have to really

warm up my core muscles, specifically the psoas, in advance to be able to perform the choreog-

raphy at performance speed.

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The exercises I am using to support this pace are, the “standing core engagement,” “floor

position, rotating upper body with one leg bent back, one leg forward,” “squats,” and the “tooth-

paste tube squeeze.” All of these allow me to stretch the muscles that need stretching and make

sure I’m in relationship with my core before going onstage.

When performing the Elephant posture, I encourage my students and colleagues to focus

on movement: on their core, their foundation, their feet, whether they are grounded, and what

they are standing on. How to move safely, keep their feet underneath them, use their hamstrings

to balance, create the movement. This has been significant to me and my own process, and I can

speak to the usefulness of this advice first hand.

Elephant Warm-up.

The goal of this series is to warm up feet, toes, and knees in an effort to open up and

make one’s relationship to the ground more available. As I move through the series, I am being

mindful of: foundation, balance, being grounded, being supported, one’s relationship to the

ground, pelvis, psoas and spine.

Feet and toe warm up, on a stool or chair:

• message feet, start with patting

• move toe bones and joints gently

• deep foot arch message with thumb

• base of toe message

• toe stretch, push hand with toes, ankle circles, top of foot stretch

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• heel shake with both R & L

• inch worm with toes on the ground, forward and back

• press into ball of the foot, torso tips forward,

The Changing Room 2014, photo by Joy Walker. (fig. 11)

• jumping with feet and legs faster

Standing core engagement:

• side to side, on one foot then over to the other foot

• parallel legs to start then into weight shift R to L

• moving through center with balance, engaging core through both legs

• toothpaste tube squeeze, narrowing core

• using the ground slowly, in place

Stand legs up and down with core engagement:

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• toothpaste tube squeeze to narrow the core

• turn out and repeat

SECOND POSITION as in ballet, squat:

• legs wide, knees over toes

The Changing Room 2014, photo by Joy Walker. (fig. 12)

• butt drops between heels

• try not to hinge at the waist

• come up to standing

• push with core

• engage psoas and core, etc.

• repeat if needed

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The Changing Room 2014, photo by Joy Walker. (fig. 13)

Check in with body

• lunge & recover, Star compass drill

Check in with body

Work through moves and check choreography

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Tiger

(fig. 14)

“Celeritas/Swiftness: I am the Tiger, I am very quick to run and turn, that the arrow in

the sky cannot overcome me” (Windsor 39).

“The word Tiger’ actually derives from the ancient Persian word for arrow. Tigers were associ-

ated with speed. The Tiger in the picture is holding an arrow, confirming the traditional and lin-

guistic link. He is sitting by the right shoulder of the man, which suggests that it is the speed of

the right hand (or sword-arm) that is most crucial. The arrow is not only fast it is accurate. With

a fifteenth-century hunting longbow, a good archer should be able to place three arrows into a

two-inch circle at forty yards” (Windsor 40). Fiori, as translated by Guy Windsor

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Tiger energy, to me, represents trusting one’s intuition, and acting swiftly and spontane-

ously if necessary. It is embodied in Gyrotonic® movement in terms of flexibility and agility, in-

tention, precision, specificity, knowing where you are in space/weapons choice, and the moves to

support that choice.

Personally, I feel I am experiencing Tiger energy when I have had a particularly

rigorous, but satisfying Gyrotonic® session, and I know I can bring what I’ve learned and the

ways I’ve changed my body to my next combat session. During and after Gyrotonic® sessions, I

move through basic stage combat movements to feel them integrate in my body.

In the Tibetan spiritual tradition, the Tiger represents military prowess, strength, and the

transmutation of anger into wisdom, and the flow of energy. Other traditions equate it with

speed, rapid assessment of a situation, and swift and expert execution of technique.

Agility.

The Tiger metaphor speaks about being swift and agile. Both physically and mentally.

Achieving these things physically brings confidence and agility elsewhere, in oneself and onto

the stage. I discovered and worked the physical aspect of this metaphor in my practicum. One of

the excellent aspects of the psoas strength building was lateral movement. This area in my body

has to do with the connective tissue of the leg and pelvis, as well as my hip sockets. My pelvic

floor, the first and second chakras, when engaged with intention to move laterally, propel the

hamstrings and the gluts. These are the natural systems of locomotion in the body.

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The Gyrotonic® work took me down a path to understanding how my body works. My

task has been to develop those core supportive systems. With that has come the exploration of

my emotional and spiritual core; the in depth somatic work I have done on myself that represents

the foundation under Tiger - Elephant. These things in tandem and balance have been part of the

exciting agility I have enjoyed.

Gyrotonic® encourages us to think in three dimensions, essentially, whereas some other

movement disciplines, like Pilates®, are based more on two dimensions. Gyrotonic® emphasizes

how the body is moving through space, and what muscle groups are necessary to achieve the

movement freely and comfortably. I think some understanding of the muscles involved in each

of the moves I use in a fight—how they connect to each other and other structures, and how they

can perform their job to the fullest—is essential to my art. Gyrotonic® provides me with this.

I have repeatedly included my Gyrotonic® instructor in choreography sessions for my

various Goddard projects; both to assist my abilities, and those of my partners. She has consist-

ently, through her understanding of Gyrotonic® forms and the body’s kinetics, enabled us to per-

form our movements more smoothly; our thrusts, parries, and lunges more deeply and agilely;

and allowed me to perform movements more economically, with less effort, in the way the body

wants to go, without working against the body’s abilities and limitations.

I clearly remember a moment when I was engaged in choreography during my practicum.

I found a deep posture that felt natural and grounded in the earth. It felt agile like the Tiger. I

achieve the goals of the Tiger by reminding myself of the systems that allow for agility and

swiftness. Warming up the hamstrings and the muscle systems of the leg that propel me laterally

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are excellent places to start. I have discovered that lateral movement availability in my legs, ribs,

and spine can help me adapt faster and adds dimension and range to my physical choices.

The move in which I really felt this was during my practicum with the rapier and dagger

choreography. It is called a “punto-reverso.” It is a deep, classical lunge attack with the sword on

an outside line to the opponent’s body. It’s not executed straight forward or straight back, and it

can be difficult to recover from.

I felt my body in that moment, and my core engaged and I committed to the move organi-

cally! I knew it was what I was looking for and this gave me great satisfaction. It was exhilarat-

ing knowing I could track the feeling and the work down to a specific moment that I had cap-

tured on video. I remember it being really fun. Looking at the footage later, I could see that mo-

ment clearly. The moment my practice took over and my body responded; my brain turned off

and my body took over. When I showed this work to my cohorts here in Seattle, they all com-

mented on the delivery of the move in the context of the fight. I enjoyed the accomplishment.

The learning goals I set for myself in my G1 semester were to use video as a tool to learn

and observe the nuance of my own growth. This moment in time was one of them.

Point of Honor Video at time 4:51.

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On Location, Point of Honor 2013, Photo by Joy Walker (fig. 15)

I am using Gyrotonic® movement in my work in Colorado. I felt capable and confident

in my first few days of work with my colleagues, with the physical understanding I have already

practiced. I used all of the kinetic knowledge Andrea has given me, and focused on the agility

and connectedness I have already achieved. After I had a Gyrotonic® session, I noticed a distinct

change in my abilities to perform the choreography. I felt even more grounded in my core, as

well as more confident in the speed and precision of my moves.

The exercise that has helped the most in this area is the “Lateral Rib opening & stretch,

gently, with breath.” I am having to hold, support, and move both a heavy axe and one-handed

broadsword. It is difficult to move these weapons fast enough to meet my opponent in the chore-

ography. I have to really be able to access enough rotation in my shoulders, latissimus dorsi mus-

cles, and trapezius muscles.

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Choice of strategy/choreography/weapon.

“Control is the most obvious difference between an expert and a novice. It must be mas-

tered on many levels. A swordsman should always be in control of himself, his emotions, and his

tactical environment. Of course, a healthy human being must occasionally cede control (rigid,

unyielding emotional sterility is not a requirement), and one must recognize that the world

around us cannot be controlled. But in the Salle, in the street, and on the Battlefield, (in the thea-

ter), self-control is all. The practice of swordsmanship over many years can and does lead to a

measure of physical, mental, and emotional self-control” (Windsor 28).

There is a precision behind choreography that the observer doesn’t always think about.

To them, they are watching a spontaneous fight, between two or more people, that may take up

the whole stage and look messy and uncoordinated. In fact, a great deal of planning goes into a

fight.

Fight choreography is a combination of many elements. There are the basic moves—the

parries, thrusts, and lunges that make up the fight. There is also the paramount issue of safety be-

tween the combatants, and the intention they are bringing to the fight. Judging the three-dimen-

sional components of the stage environment is very important, and finally there is the choice of

weapons, which can be traditional, like swords, or non-traditional found objects such as a toaster

or wireless keyboard.

In Colorado, in Henry 4 Part 1, my character The Douglas uses an axe in my left hand

and a Scottish Basket Hilt one-handed broadsword in my right. The choreography was designed

on my use with the two weapons. I have never used those weapons together and they are of dif-

ferent weights. It has been exciting to incorporate the two into my body, and it has also proven to

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be the most challenging aspect to invent a movement style on my feet as we built the moves. We

are still adapting moves as we open the show. I will also still be making physical and energetic

discoveries throughout the run as the work evolves.

CSF 2014, Photo Tim Orr. (fig. 16)

In 2010, I choreographed several fights for David Mamet’s “Edmond” for Balagan Theater—all

of which were very challenging. The dimensions of the stage were small and confined, and the

environment was a difficult one to fight in. In addition, the audience surrounded the stage and sat

very close to it. I had to use a great deal of imagination in keeping my actors and the audience

safe, while still making the fight look authentic.

Spontaneous reaction/ability to improvise.

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Going along with the development of strategy and choreography is the ability to impro-

vise and be flexible when the structure and system you’ve worked out with your partner, or for

the actors you are choreographing for, doesn’t work. Sometimes actors can’t perform the moves I

develop for them, or have emotional or physical restrictions.

I have had to adjust choreography, modify moves, and even cut parts of a fight if a per-

former is physically unable to perform them safely. I worked with a student who had a signifi-

cant history of experiencing emotional and physical abuse, and she had difficulty with the “com-

bat intention” we have to have in our fights onstage. We were able to work with her to dispel

some of the negative energy attached to physical altercation, and she was able to perform the

fight. She did it beautifully. My goal in these and most other stage combat situations is for the

performer to be comfortable with what they are being asked to do onstage. This is fundamental

to my approach of this art form.

I have also had to work on my own body’s ability to be flexible and agile enough that, if

my partner does something surprising, I have the mental and physical agility to work with it, in-

stead of injuring myself or them. I encourage this flexibility in my fellow actors and students.

Flexibility is essential to the speed of the Tiger!

The physical flexibility, precision and agility of the Tiger thrills and exhilarates me in the

stage combat moment. As I continue to access more parts of my body through Gyrotonic®

movement, I know I’ll be able to bring even more feeling and physical acuity to my perfor-

mances. I encourage my students to focus on increasing the range of motion of their joints and

limbs, and exploring other ways to move than the ones we use on a day-to-day basis. I want my

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students to focus on agility of mind, as well, in their choices of environment, weapon, combat

moves, and how the fight will appear.

Tiger Warm-up.

The goal for the Tiger series seeks develop greater agility, and to promote and make

available lateral movement. The target muscle systems will be the core, along with the psoas, ad-

ductors, hip rotators, quad leg muscles, and the top of the hamstrings. My observation on the

Tiger is to promote agility, speed and strength in the stage combat movement moment, in which

lateral motion is very important.

As I move through the series, I am being mindful of: speed, strength, agility, lateral movement,

adaptability, control

Hamstring stretch, gently, with breathing, sitting on the floor

The Changing Room 2014, photo by Joy Walker (fig. 17)

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• gentle lean forward to feel a stretch

Lateral Rib opening & stretch, gently, with breath:

• on the floor, legs extended as previous

The Changing room 2014, photo by Joy Walker (fig. 18)

• one arm reaches to the sky

• one arm is planted on the floor behind leg

• reach arms in opposition

• switch arms

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Lion

(fig. 19)

“None can bring more daring heart than me, a Lion, and I challenge anyone in Battle”

(Windsor 40).

“None has a bolder heart than I…let go of the fear of injury and fight bravely, overcome

your natural fear with the belief that you WILL succeed. The LION stands his ground auda-

ciously against any opponent” (Windsor 40). Fiori, as translated by Guy Windsor

In Fiori’s system, his Lion is courageous and has the fearlessness to engage in a fight.

Boldness and audacity are essential elements for personal combat. The Lion here also holds a

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heart. This is the heart of courage in battle, the courage that overcomes fear. The Lion is counter-

part to the Tiger—courage and heart to counterbalance agility and precision.

Lion energy focuses on the heart, the metaphoric seat of all emotion. In many traditions,

the Lion represents courage, fearlessness, majesty, and strength in overcoming difficulty. There’s

a reason the Lion has represented royalty throughout the ages! It is a powerful symbol of

strength, assertiveness, and protection of the tribe. Even the Lion in The Wizard of Oz was yearn-

ing for a Heart so he could feel courageous.

To me, Lion energy is really tied closely with the somatic work I’ve done over the last

two years. It represents SPRe®, opening the heart, listening, authentic voice, attention to breath,

dealing with difficult emotions, and somatic realizations. SPRe® therapy uses gentle elliptical

movement of the body to explore old patterns and emotions that have become locked into our tis-

sues. Lion energy represents the body/mind connection, something that is vital in stage combat

when we are personifying a character, physically and verbally, while at the same time engaging

in combat movement.

Lion energy is all about emotions, and those feelings that aren’t as attractive and may be

difficult to manage, like anger and fear. I have had to put in a lot of work to learn how to manage

my big emotions. Lion energy can use those emotions, attractive or unattractive, as fuel for the

work—as the power behind a hit, or the feeling behind some dialogue that really conveys what

the character is experiencing. It's about having and using your authentic voice and speaking your

truth.

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Using somatic realizations/emotions.

Overcoming fears and dealing with strong emotions that once felt threatening, but are

now becoming more manageable, is definitely resonating with me in my practice and study. This

has been something that I have worked on for many years and, looking back, I can track my own

history and understanding. As I have peeled back the muscle layers in my work and practice, I

have discovered the years of rage and emotion stored deep in my muscles. Freeing muscle sys-

tems in my body releases a flood of emotion.

I used to think I was special in this process, but not according to the practitioners who do

this every day. The somatization of feelings in our tissues is something everyone does. The term

“pain in the neck” is a good example; another is when someone’s back goes out who is “overbur-

dened.”

In her book, Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine, Candace

B. Pert PhD talks about meeting Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in 1988: “I was impressed with Bain-

bridge-Cohen’s very accurate understanding of how trauma and stress are forms of information

overload. She used the mechanism of nerve reversal to explain how impulses are rejected by the

brain and bounced back to other areas of the central nervous system, where they are stored in

both the autonomic and somatic tissues. Bonnie’s approach uses movement and body work and

is based on these psychological and physiological principles.” (Pert p275).

My personal somatization of my emotions has been very uncomfortable for me. I have

not done this kind of work to this intense a degree on myself before. As I move and release my

lower spine, old emotions come bubbling up to the surface that feel old. I can rotate much easier,

and I have more facility with those areas of my body, but the emotional release is unavoidable

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for me. And I don’t want to avoid it. I’ve spent too many years doing that, and I choose to move

into and through the haze of this emotional somatic memory.

As a child, dismissal of my emotions over the years created a nerve reversal in my so-

matic nervous systems. This cumulative trauma created developmental gaps in my emotional and

somatic development, such that as an adult I struggle with anxiety. Conflict has always been

something that has been very difficult for me to deal with, in myself and with others. My learned

response to conflict was anger. My nervous system knows it well. I felt for many years like a

pinball, out of control emotionally, a type of black and white response that leaves no middle

ground, no middle emotional state.

My response to conflict and adversity was going from zero to sixty with no stops in be-

tween. I was embarrassed by it, and it got me into trouble and surprised people. It still happens,

and I am working as hard as I can to employ the tools I was not given as child to self-comfort, to

respond and react, to choose how to respond when triggered, and to communicate with those that

I care about it. This is many years in the making.

My work is to breathe and remember that things tend to work out, and that there are posi-

tions and emotions available to me within the zero to sixty scale. I’ve worked extremely hard to

put positive self-soothing practices in place. I use the metaphor of my strong emotions being like

fog or mist that dissipates softly with my breath as I move through it and beyond it. It’s working.

I have been triggered and managed these emotions, and also not been caught in them. I can feel

when my glands open and my body pumps adrenalin into my bloodstream and my heart races out

of my chest!

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It’s in those moments that I seek perspective, because truly there are two sides to every

coin. Or at least I can remove myself physically to manage the big bio-chemical reactions and

calm down. Then I can ask the questions of myself and my environment. What is served by being

triggered? What needs to be communicated, and what can be let go?

When I am in emotional conflagration all I am doing is trying to put the fire out: I am not

able to problem-solve, compromise, achieve perspective, love, or be creative. That’s understand-

able, considering I was never really taught how to manage these triggers. I never knew when I

would be made to feel shame and guilt because of my emotions. The unpredictability of the mes-

sages that I was given on how to handle these huge emotions inside was a constant struggle as a

kid, and sometimes as an adult.

I put a name on it: “cumulative trauma.” I came to see that through the rigor of the prac-

tice, combined with psychotherapy and somatic pattern recovery deep tissue work. All of the

things in my practice have allowed me to define why I was feeling and reacting the way I was.

Knowing these triggers, I am better able to overcome them, and potentially use them.

Imagining how an event or someone’s action would affect my character is made easier if

I use similar emotions or experiences I may have had. My emotions are things that I can use in

my characterizations. Playing a character that lunges headlong into battle reflects my own emo-

tional spontaneity. Realizing why I identify strongly with a character or story line, or feel unpre-

dictably emotional during a scene or fight, can help me deepen my work.

When I was developing my Practicum project, I envisioned an Elizabethan-era duel be-

tween two men, disputing some point of honor. I wanted to show how men in the past used phys-

icality and weapons as an accepted way to engage in and solve emotional issues. I also wanted to

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exhibit the use of the Elizabethan rapier and dagger pair. The specific point of honor would not

be revealed; what was important was the conflict and the emotions between the two men.

My partner was my colleague and mentor, Fight Master Geof Alm. I have worked with

Geof for many years as a teaching assistant and substitute teacher. He has taught me a great deal,

and is a good friend, but at times I have been frustrated by the fact that I am still in the role of

Apprentice to the Master. We built the fight together, and I enjoyed how easy it was to work with

someone I knew well, who was also very accomplished in his craft. It was decided that my char-

acter, the younger man, would, in the end, kill his more mature character.

It wasn’t until we were well into the process of rehearsal and site scouting that I realized

the emotional and somatic ramifications of the scenario we had created. I was, in effect, killing

my elder and my mentor; a man who had stood in for me, in some ways, as a father. As I have

explained, I had a difficult emotional relationship with my own father, and it was interesting to

realize the symbolism. Once I had recognized them, I was able to use the emotions that the sce-

nario brought up for me to put real feeling into the fight with Geof. It was a success on many lev-

els.

Heart and Fearlessness.

There are some significant metaphors that accompany the heart symbol that the Lion

holds. Symbolically, the lion is fearless, in part because of its mighty roar and courage in stand-

ing up to foes. Using the Lion energy to open the heart and experience courage can be powerful.

I have discovered some other resonant metaphors with the heart: the aspects of the flow

of blood; and oxygen getting to the body. This blood flow nourishes the body and the brain. All

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the physical and somatic work I have done in the past two years has targeted blood flow. Getting

blood to different parts of the body has been crucial to taking another step of evolution. Breath is

also connected to this process.

CSF 2014, Photo Tim Orr. (fig. 20)

I have found that areas that are not used to being given space and blood and oxygen in

my body tend to hold on to old patterns of existence. For example, last year my shoulders and

feet were very difficult to open up and were absolutely set in a pattern that they had established.

As I opened them up and gave them a voice and allowed them to have their own “space,” they

disengaged from the historic pattern that I had cemented them into. Just as my emotional and en-

ergetic evolution has progressed, so has the journey of my body.

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As I have explored The Douglas character in Colorado, I have been able to realize the

voice of the Lion. I have made specific vocal choices during choreography that do not sound like

anything or anyone else onstage at that moment. I have found that ferociousness of the character

enjoyable, and have allowed that elation to be present in the way the character enters into a fight.

With blood, lust and glee!

What an amazing opportunity to express such frequency of emotion. I am also aware that

if my character is enjoying what he is doing, then so will my audience. The Douglas is larger

than life as Shakespeare writes him in Henry 4 Part 1! The King Hunter! Searching the battle-

field for his prey with his axe and sword in a kilt! Expressing emotions that were never appropri-

ate is liberating and exciting.

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen mentions that the heart must be nurtured before it can nurture

other cells. This is a direct reflection on my experience as a child dealing with a nurture-less and

unpredictable home. These are things I have had to learn. The more I build the awareness, the

more I allow for self-nurture, the more blood flows through my body and opens my muscles and

organs up, and the more I have the confidence and courage of the Lion.

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen brings together the concepts of nourishment and blood flow to

the heart and body.

“The blood flowing from the lungs to the heart is the richest, most oxygenated blood. The first

cells to receive freshly oxygenated blood from the heart are the heart cells themselves, for the

heart must be nurtured before it can nurture other cells. It is interesting that coronary arteries

(the arteries that bring fresh blood from the heart to the heart) are, in our culture, a common site

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of stagnation and a primary cause of heart attacks. We are a very outer-directed culture, and

tend to drive ourselves and overlook our need to nourish ourselves” (Cohen 72).

Facing difficulty with courage and confidence.

Knowing and trusting the flow in my own body and heart allows my physical structure to

open up and respond honestly to what is going on. The exercises, “belly spirals,” “guitar swing,”

and the “swirling lion heart” all support this concept of opening the chest and the heart. We all

muscularly guard our vulnerable chest areas, and can compress our breathing and blood flow in

doing it. Opening the chest muscles, rib cage, and diaphragm can help with that. The arm move-

ment helps in encouraging blood flow to extremity muscles, but also to the chest, heart, and

lungs.

I have often played emotional characters—characters who “wear their heart on their

sleeve,” a phrase I really like because it is kind of a somatic representation for how we either re-

strict or display our hearts, or our feelings. I played Ajax, in a production of Troilus and Cres-

sida, a character who is notorious for being emotional—in Shakespeare's play and in the original

Greek myth that takes place during the Trojan War. So often, I have been criticized for being

“too emotional,” “too sensitive,” for essentially wearing my heart on my sleeve, like Ajax, who

is only being authentic about who he is and what he feels.

The character of the Douglas, in Henry IV, is not much different from Ajax. He appears to

live and fight from an emotional place, with great heart and courage. He is confident in his

skills—almost too confident, as shown by his astonishment and flight after being defeated in

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combat. I am trying to bring my excitement in doing stage combat, as well as my heart and feel-

ings about what the character evokes in me, to my performance. There is always anxiety and

nervousness before a performance, which Douglas would feel before a battle, and I’ve tried to

integrate that into performance, as well. I’ve really felt myself accessing Lion and Elephant en-

ergy the most in my performance.

Communication/Authentic voice.

How many times do we clench our jaws so we don’t speak our truth to someone, only to

notice our jaw muscles are tight and sore later? I know that before I began my somatic practice,

my neck and jaw often felt tight and painful. It was hard to loosen them up when I was in ses-

sion, because that meant that all of my uncomfortable and “unattractive” emotion would come

out. But when I did release my jaw, and talked about my feelings, I felt better. This is truly

where some of my somatic work comes in—a physical manifestation of restraint and emotion

that can be recognized and released—and used to communicate.

My somatic work has allowed me to access those parts of my body that were closed down

and those ways that I wasn’t speaking my truth. I am experimenting with the fact that letting

these jaw and throat restrictions go doesn’t mean losing control of the feelings I am feeling;

something I have been afraid of in the past.

During the last Residency, I was challenged by two of my colleagues and told that I was

being over-sensitive, too big in the feelings I was feeling and expressing, and too scary. In fact, I

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have had several experiences where I felt, or was told, that people were afraid of my emotional-

ity. In the past, I would have shut this experience inside of me without confronting the situation

or the person who was making me feel scary and unacceptable.

Instead, I accessed my somatic work and allowed myself to feel the rage, sorrow, unat-

tractiveness, and feelings of abandonment by two people I had trusted. I didn’t just accept their

version of events, but took my feelings and my story to the resident counselor, who helped me

process them. She then had my entire cohort meet together to discuss the incident, where, once

again, accusations of what I heard to be my ugliness and unacceptable male rage were leveled

against me. Even old events were brought up and thrown at me. I felt as if I was being hit!

The counselor, however, supported me speaking my truth and my feelings, and I felt

heard by the rest of the group. They supported me in my interpretation of events; which was that

my two colleagues had acted badly. They accepted me as I was, emotions and all. Just having the

opportunity to have a “do-over” in an experience I’ve had before was so freeing, and it helped to

rewire my system.

Opening up the chest, jaw, and throat to have access to full breath and voice is vital in

combat and in speaking and projecting lines. We might be able to hear an actor who isn’t fully

opening their jaw and enunciating, but we won’t feel the full impact of their words or the emo-

tion behind them because they are not being let out. We won’t feel that the actor or character is

truly speaking their truth and communicating what they want or feel.

It could be argued that communication is the real reason why I do stage combat. Stage

combat often happens when there are no more words for characters in a play. They communicate

with story violence, a primal human expression. Again, the physical, somatic manifestation of a

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deeply held feeling, pattern, or traumatic event. I can use the emotions I experience in my so-

matic work as a way to explore and embody my character.

“The ‘Lion’s Roar’ is the fearless proclamation that whatever comes up in our state of

mind, including powerful emotion, is workable” (The Lion’s Roar: An Introduction to Tantra,

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche).

Improving myself, my body, and my internal landscape through my somatic work, and

with Lion energy, I become a better vessel of communication for on and off stage. It is very

stressful to return to these places of unanswered need and emotional dismissal. In an attempt to

communicate better as an art form, I have turned my guts inside-out. I am attempting to describe

the indescribable, understand and explore the irrational.

The concept of the Lion’s Roar has a long history as a martial art. This particular one is

thought to be of Sufi (Islamic-Mystic) origin, according to some of my research into Tibetan and

Buddhist mysticism.

“The use of raw emotions and instincts as fuel is exactly as in the Lion's Roar! Martial

Tantra, as is the 'alchemical' transmutations, and the relationship of the Lion's Roar to 'space' -

as in a 'Bardo' (Tibetan) or Antarala (Sanskrit).

The attitude of fearlessness, and of 'having no back' only forward action - with every di-

rection being forwards, is also key in Lion's Roar! Tantric Martial Arts. This is 'embodied' in the

core Seed Punch 'Chune-Choi' (Han-Cantonese) with its whole body Ging's (Sanskrit: Sakti's)

and 'forward projecting energy both to the front and back - as in outwardly and 'forward' even to

the rear. In Chune-Choi the Bardo-Space is penetrated fearlessly in all directions, equally as if

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all are forward, with no back.” (The Lion’s Roar: An Introduction to Tantra. Chogyam Trungpa

Rinpoche)

I feel like this supports my idea of the somatic strengths of Lion energy. Using the raw

emotions and instincts that are released from the places I put them in my body can give me

power. I can use it to perform and embody my character, and I can use it in any physical move-

ment or combat.

The Breath.

You can’t access your authentic voice without the support of your breath; diaphragm,

lungs, etc. I didn’t know how shallowly I breathed on a daily basis until Andrea began to work

on my diaphragm and chest, at which point I felt how much more freely I could breathe. I wasn’t

getting enough oxygen, partly because of my asthma, but also because of muscle restriction, and

it was affecting my combat work.

In my experience, Lion energy is largely about the heart, but it also includes the breath

and the mechanism of breathing. Focusing on the breath and the importance of full access to the

lungs, muscles of the chest wall and diaphragm, and the muscles and structures of the throat and

jaw is something that Andrea and I have focused on in our somatic work. Breathing properly is

so important in my work because it is essential for speaking the part, and for performing combat

moves with stamina and strength.

In a video from my G1 semester, I showed a session I had with a fight colleague wherein

we were examining and performing some of Fiori’s combat diagrams. I had to stop often to catch

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my breath and to cough out matter from my lungs. It was really getting in the way of being able

to perform a decent fight.

Too often, we don’t fully access our full breath. We breathe shallowly, not using our full

lung capacity. Our diaphragms are restricted by physical or emotional tension. Using Lion en-

ergy to expel that tension and open up our hearts and chests is important. How can we perform

a two-minute fight, with dialogue, if we can’t breathe?

I encourage my students to pay attention to their breath and how much they are actually

breathing. I help them to find their diaphragm and strengthen it, and release the restriction of the

ribs and chest muscles.

I was worried that the higher altitude of Colorado would be a real problem in my

fighting. I thought it might restrict my breathing. I arrived a week early to acclimatize to the alti-

tude and see exactly what breathing there would be like, and I found it really helped. The exer-

cises are also helping me to keep my chest, lungs, and diaphragm loose, especially “Lion’s paw,”

and “belly spiral.”

I love the idea of the Lion’s Roar, as a way of opening the body, specifically the jaw and

throat, to provide a more free way of experiencing one’s own feelings and speaking one’s truth. I

designed one of the exercises specifically to mimic this action of the Lion and as a way to loosen

the jaw muscles. I love the idea of being able to use Lion energy in stage combat, not only in a

martial way, but also in such an emotional way.

This is where the in-depth work has taken me on the deepest levels, levels that I have

never put words to, never described or voiced or written about until now. My personal historical

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model is one of denial and suppression, rage and fear. So as a small person who was both sensi-

tive and loud, these were qualities that were shunned and ignored. All of these factors have

guided my MFA practice.

When performing this posture, I encourage my students to focus on the integration of

body/spirit/and mind; their somatic experience. Specifically on their heart and their feelings; on

the emotions, images, and old patterns that arise, so that they can then use these in their perfor-

mance of combat AND as their character. I also encourage them to focus on their breathing, us-

ing their whole lung/chest/diaphragm; and on their jaw and speaking their own truth. Realiza-

tions of Self can help us better inhabit our characters.

Lion Warm-up.

The goal of this series is to warm-up and awaken the heart and skin, and to access blood

flow with “knaps”* and body tapping and patting. This is with voice and vocals specifically, be-

cause of the chest vibration. In Fiori’s sketch, the Lion is drawn with a heart. Think about the

heart and its function with the idea of the flow of movement and the flow of blood throughout

the body.

As I move through the series, I am being mindful of: courage, authentic voice, heart, flow,

breath, skin, blood, overcoming difficulties

On a stool, seated:

Lions Paw: to stimulate the skin by gently patting and thumping on one’s body and ex-

tremities with head to feet patting.

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• wake up heart with gentle thumping on chest with both hands

• touch sound and vibration through chest

• vocalization with breath

KNAP clinic:

Knaps are clap sounds made with both hands in unarmed stage combat when getting hit

to simulate the sound of an actual strike to the head or body. Cup hand slightly to get a

sound, not too hard

• all knaps

• hands

• knap on chest or legs

Cross body arm stretch

• arm extended to the right or left straight, across chest

• five finger web stretch

• hands pressing together

• tractional cross body arm stretch

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The Changing Room 2014, photo by Joy Walker (fig. 21)

Same as before only pulling arm to right or left

Belly Spirals

• rotating left then right

Guitar swing with arms, or the “Pete Townsend”

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The Changing Room 2014, photo by Joy Walker (fig. 22)

• left arm then switch to right arm

Swirling Lion Heart

• rotate ribs around spine

• head circles

• slow and gentle

• only forward

• release into gravity

Shoulder rolls

• forward

• back

• alternating

• spiral with arms swinging - quick tempo arm swings standing up – alternate

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Lion’s roar

opening jaw wide, stretching muscles of jaw, head, and throat.

The Changing room 2014, photo by Joy Walker (fig. 23)

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Chapter IV: The Core Four in Practice.

I have separated the animal exercises and stretches. But as a warm-up, they would be done all

together with no breaks. Eventually, the order and usage could be adapted to suit the needs of the

situation and individual. Even exercises originally assigned to one animal could be changed or

moved.

Teaching the Core Four.

Before leaving for Colorado and Shakespeare, I wanted to develop and teach the warm-up sys-

tems of my Core Four. This I did. Andrea Burchak and I developed the system taking Fiori die

Liberi’s system of the qualities of a swordsman as explained in Il Fior di Battaglia from 1409,

using it to inspire my practice of contemporary stage combat.

The system seeks to warm the body up for performance. An awareness and facility physically

and energetically is the goal of the warm up. Taking the metaphors of the four animals Lynx, El-

ephant, Lion and Tiger, Andrea and I targeted exercises and stretches that we felt were indicative

of those areas in the body. I have also attempted to integrate spiritual meaning into the meta-

phoric animals that I could meditate on as I went through the exercises.

In June of 2014, I asked my friend and protégé in theater and stage combat Emily Fortuna, to

join me and Andrea at the Changing Room to experiment with the warm up system and see what

it felt like. I had run through the warm up with Andrea but this time I stepped into teaching as

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Emily had never done the system. I have taught quite a bit in the past and during the MFA and I

love teaching so I welcomed the chance to teach our new system.

She agreed to be a part of the new Core Four Warm-up that Andrea and I developed. She

participated and it was captured on video. Andrea, myself and Emily all sat down after to talk

about how it worked or could be improved.

The warm up itself took about 45 minutes and Emily and I picked up stage weapons after

that. We ran through some basic choreography together and it was excellent. As I was teaching

the system, I moved through it like I would have taught a class in stage combat. I kept the pace

moving and flowing and tried to stay just a little bit ahead of Emily and Andrea. Andrea and I

had written down what we liked and worked through it before and I then transferred the exercises

to index cards so I could refer to them easily.

The Changing room 2014, photo by Joy Walker (fig. 24)

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It became clear to me that the system could be employed in any way we wanted. Some

animal exercises and stretches clearly went with others. And also we could develop and inject

other aspects of a theatrical warm up such as, vocal or emotional warm-up exercises. I have a lot

of training in performance preparation and my undergraduate degree was spent learning how to

do this. I have also performed since my undergraduate days and I am very familiar with warm

ups and fully believe in them. I am using these warm-ups in Colorado for my performances there

with Colorado Shakespeare Festival in July of 2014.

I asked some basic questions of Emily and Andrea about our experimental warm up sys-

tem and have included those questions in the Portfolio. Concerning previous semesters work and

creation, I came to the realization that the adapted system is mine and ultimately it can be what I

need it to be for any situation. I got great suggestions from Emily, Andrea, and my wife Joy.

Emily’s Questionnaire

What is your theater and stage combat experience? What is your relationship to Paul? Have you

seen the Core Four system before?

“I’ve been acting for eight years, and studied stage combat starting two years ago. I have

SAFD basic certifications in broadsword, rapier and dagger, single sword, and unarmed. I met

Paul when he worked as a teaching assistant over the course of the year that I learned broad-

sword, unarmed, and rapier/dagger. We kept in touch, Paul has helped provide me with advice as

I make my journey in the Seattle acting world, and I’ve dabbled in learning new weapons with

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him such as small sword and sword and shield. I’ve not seen the Core Four system aside from

what Paul told me about it before when he was explaining this project to me.”

In what capacity where you assisting with this project?

“I was the student/guinea pig; trying out Paul’s system for the first time after he’d devel-

oped it and formalized it into a series of exercises, and then giving feedback on what worked, or

didn’t, given my theatre and stage combat experience.”

How did you find yourself engaging with the project?

“The project was very useful for reminding me of awareness of my body, prepared me to

move, and put me at a state of readiness attention to observe my partner in my performance of

any kind.”

How do you see this benefitting stage combat performance?

“It puts me in precisely the state of mind I want to be in before a stage combat fight, or

any sort of performance: aware of my body, but mostly open, receptive and ready to work with

my partner.”

Could you see a difference in your own physicality/fight style/movement abilities?

“Absolutely—particularly in terms of understanding my responsiveness and comfort in

my own body. I also think I’d like to focus more on specific exercises to help get me into a par-

ticular physicality for different fight styles.”

This project was created in an effort to integrate the several disciplines that Paul has been study-

ing: historical perspective, weapon styles, story-telling through movement, somatic awareness,

Gyrotonic® movement. Did you feel that they were integrated? How would you improve them?

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“Yes, I felt they were well integrated. I thought voice work – either just sounds or finding

pieces of text to say with the exercises might help. Possibly even physical improvisation as re-

lated to the particular animal may inform other potential physical and vocal exercises for explo-

ration.”

Andrea’s Questionnaire

What is your theater, stage combat, or movement experience? What is your relationship to Paul?

“I have performed and choreographed in theater, musical theater and dance productions

throughout high school and while attending community college. I transferred into the Dance De-

partment at Cornish College of the Arts and completed my degree in 2005. While attending Cor-

nish I discovered Gyrotonic® and became a certified instructor in 2006.

Paul was referred to me for Gyro through a mutual friend about a year before beginning his

MFA. We worked intermittently until the MFA began, at that point GYROTONIC® and SPRe®

became a part of Paul’s weekly practice.”

Had you seen the Core Four system before?

“No. Paul had been wanting to create this warm-up program since before I met him. We

had some conversations about what it might look like from the beginning or our relationship, but

the real work in it began more recently.”

In what capacity where you assisting with this project?

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“We worked together to figure out how to put Paul’s vision into practice. I feel like it was

a collaborative process in trying to find out which exercises and stretches are relevant in prepar-

ing the body for stage combat while using the animals for movement inspiration. We talked

about what aspects of the animals are being highlighted, why is that useful in a combat situation,

how does that translate into physicality of stage combat and what would a warm-up progression

look like to help the performer feel connected and versatile.”

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Final Project: Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Henry IV, Part 1.

(fig. 25)

CSF 2014, Photo Tim Orr.

Journal Entries.

July 1, 2014

Today was the first read through of the play as is standard practice. I found myself nerv-

ous with the history of how I got to that moment loudly inside my head. My nervous heart. My

insecure jitters the first day of rehearsal. I have been welcomed warmly and sweetly by people

who have never met me. I have a very large and imposing beard grown to its full volume for the

last two months. I get noticed on the street.

In my defense the character I play is the infamous Scottish Earl of Douglas! I have been

with this play and close to this character before and I always wanted to play him. Within the im-

age of how I would play this role, I always imagined a huge beard as formidable as the character!

It seems to be working. The fun is to use the metaphors in an environment…

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My beard could be looked at as a metaphor for the character and what I can bring to the

character. This is not a fake beard and neither is my experience and prowess as an actor, combat-

ant, and human being.

Some interesting themes that are starting to emerge from the work are galvanizing me.

What makes a leader? There are no villains in the play but different points of view. Other themes

are the relationships of Father and Son. Allegiance, alliance, loyalty to King and country. The

Fat Knight Falstaff evades death through cowardice or discretion.

“The better part of valor is discretion.”

-Falstaff, Henry 4 Part 1

After the meal break, we started to “block” the traffic patterns of the battle at the end of

the play. The climax of the play. I have quite some exciting moments to build. This will be the

exploration of one-handed Scottish Claymore Broadsword in my right hand and an axe in my left

hand. It is a two handed weapon system which will require more complex choreography but will

without a doubt be more interesting to watch. Certainly it will be more fun to perform.

I am also fighting side by side with the Fight Choreographer and SAFD Fight Master

Geof Kent. Geof is playing Hotspur the challenger to the throne Henry 4 and his son, Prince Hal.

Geof Kent has a national reputation as an excellent choreographer and at one time was President

of the SAFD. Before rehearsal he corresponded with me to ask if I would like one or two weap-

ons. I said two. I will own these weapons and bring them to my Port Townsend Presentation to

graduate as a symbol of this work at this moment. They will remind me of what it has taken to

get here.

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July 2.

My call today was just for fight choreography as I was not in the scene work. This day

has also been well anticipated for months and years. I didn’t make a big deal out of it at the time

and I just went to rehearsal to do my work but the spirit of the thing now overwhelms me. So

much work has gone into these moments, this celebration of movement and the celebration of the

“dance”.

Today’s choreography was videotaped and it looks much like any other rehearsal. What I

see in it is myself as a different mover and a different performer. I can feel part of my somatic

memory of days before I began this work and it is still in my body but I don’t need it to dictate

the new ways of my body and cells, the new way of my body/mind, sword/body.

I showed this footage today to my wife via Skype. She will join me in several weeks. Her

first comment was how I looked skinny. I still don’t see it but I watched the video footage and I

can see a greater integration even from my G3 and Point of Honor video Practicum. I see and ex-

perience the qualities of the Lynx as I am watching and perceiving and refining my deep listen-

ing skills to gather as much information as I can.

My goal and what I’m being paid for is to execute my task as an actor and fighter. Our

rehearsal time is limited so everyone is moving quickly in the process. The rest of the company

has been putting up three other shows this summer so they are a well-oiled machine. Again I am

struck by the caliber of professionalism. I suppose the people around us are a reflection of our-

selves. If that is so then I truly have improved if I can be considered to work in this company of

artists.

July 3

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I have rehearsed for nine hours straight. The last two hours were one of the biggest fights

I’m in. I am attempting to embody the one-handed Claymore and Ax that I have asked of my

character and me. My wrist has not been doing well with the Ax in my left hand and I haven’t

had that much experience with these weapons in combination. The Ax is heavier than the one-

handed Claymore and tends to throw my body off between the left and right sides.

July 4

We worked a lot of the smaller transitions. The final battle in Henry 4part 1, The Battle

of Shrewsbury, an actual battle in history, which will have its 612 year anniversary July 21 dur-

ing the run of the show. It was a good day and I got to work with some of the actors in those se-

quences that I had not fought with before.

I feel that the process is still up in my head and I have not begun to really integrate it.

This to me, the work of the Lynx. I am using my higher functions of my brain and analyzing,

judging measure, learning choreography. There’s no way around it as we build choreography.

There were fireworks that I did not choose to go see because I missed my wife and have felt out

of place.

July 5

Talked about flow and did it. Started to change and discover rhythmic differences within

the choreography. I’m exploring different options as quickly as possible. However we as a cast

are not trying to rush too fast. I feel for the first time that I can start to transition into the shades

and influences of the other animals within my choreography. I could not ask for a better more

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gracious and talented group of actors and technicians to work with. I am truly blessed to be

working with this top flight crew.

July 6

Today we ran the entire ending battle of the play. This is where most of my action takes

place. My character does not even show up in person until Act 4. Act 5 is the final battle and I

have choreography with nine other actors in the sequence to help end the play. Remembering the

moves has been challenging and we are not on the stage yet or in costume! However we ran ALL

of it.

There have been congruent rehearsals running with the regular scene work, one rehearsal

has been to build the fight choreography with the Fight Master who is also one of the principal

characters and the other main rehearsal with the director. We are all scheduled for 8 hours a day.

It is rigorous and brilliant. My Claymore sings and my Ax is right behind. My task is to incorpo-

rate the two of them.

July 7

Day off. Laundry. Writing. Colorado University Rec Center for a work out! Excellent and

much needed. Swimming is a good way to integrate my body back together as one. The two

halves coming together and elongating. Low impact. The altitude and lack of oxygen in Boulder

this summer has been a challenge.

July 8

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Went to an energetic deep tissue message session in Boulder. The gentlemen giving the

session used pressure points and energy manipulation from his body to my body in a therapeutic

way. The result was similar to the SPRe® work that Andrea does but it felt a little more invasive

and I felt off kilter all day and he stirred up a lot of emotions. I felt strange and drained. Vulnera-

ble. Which I was already feeling about this show. Had a weird rehearsal or at least it felt that way

we worked and achieved a lot in any case.

The massage was a very invasive procedure and I do not feel that it was helpful. I feel

that my internal energies and emotional systems were kneaded like bread and thrown around. It

was an interesting experience and the practitioner had experience but it did not benefit me. I had

a regular session of Gyrotonic® the next day and that helped to realign my body but I also felt

displaced and pushed around by people I did not know. My own sense of vulnerability and inse-

curity was revealed perhaps and I had a very difficult time getting it back. My nervous system

switched into old anxiety and fear patterns. From here the rehearsal process took on a very fast

pace.

July 9

Gyrotonic® and sleep snapped my body back into alignment and some confidence. I felt

better and rested and more myself. Worked some of my scenes… starting to figure out what is

going on…I need to make a list of traffic patterns for what I’m doing in act 5. Muscle memory is

growing and fully functioning. Feeling put back together energetically after the Energetic Mas-

sage and Gyrotonic® sessions. Not certain whether I meshed with the practitioners…? I felt off

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after having the sessions. But feeling integrated today physically and energetically. Have pulled

a calf tendon and it hurts. I have been on it a lot and pushed it beyond its limits with the charac-

ter’s boots. Ice helps and rest.

July 10

Good strong rehearsal tonight. I feel much better about what I have to do when even

though it’s not perfect. Starting to feel confident in the movement to bring character and other

acting fundamentals such as engagement with the scene, the moment, and the other actors. Mov-

ing out of the higher kinesthetic memorization process into the base and core of the work.

July 11

Working the “Rebel” scenes, which I am in. The rehearsals are in the rehearsal studio.

Last week we were running congruent fight choreography rehearsals to build fights when there

were actors that we were not onstage or working on scenes. My character of the Douglas does

not have very many lines to begin with and he’s really there for one reason. So my lines have

been cut down even more. Everyone including the audience knows why he’s there and that’s to

fight so the director has directed and pared my lines back. However the rehearsals still remain a

very cerebral process along with the choreography as everyone works to remember and memo-

rize what they are doing.

July 12

Today we had a rehearsal in the studio for more scene work and then we went into the

theatre to run the fights for the first time on the stage with the set with weapons. Friday we did a

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run of the entire show for designers. It went fairly well for how quick the rehearsal schedule ac-

tually has been.

I have asked for all of my costume accessories as early as possible. I have boots that I’m

wearing as the character as well as both my weapons. These I also wear during scenes before en-

tering into the “battle” scenes. The sword hangars are riveted to a leather vest that is like armor

and has also been sewn and riveted together. It is also a bit distressed to look “war-torn”. It’s ac-

tually formidable.

Several days of technical rehearsals ensue and these are the most difficult days and nights

as the entire production is layered together. Sound, lights, sets, costumes, set changes, not to

mention acting and choreography, etc.

Opening night July 18

Intermission

…the last several days have been exhausting as we put all the elements of the play together.

Technical rehearsals are 10 hours out of 12. We have continued to work on the choreography.

16 days ago we started the process and now here we are. I go on in the second act. To live on the

stage once more. Extra-ordinary existence, extra-ordinary action, extra-ordinary moments, once

more.

There has been a one-week break while The Tempest, I Hate Hamlet, Merry Wives of Windsor

and Henry 4, Part 2 continue their runs. There is sickness and injury in the company that I have

avoided successfully because of my work with Andrea.

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July 27

This is only the second show after a week due to the performance schedule with three

other plays. I’m feeling ready to do this but the journey the last week up to the first performance

was an interesting challenge as I look at how I feel and what the MFA work has changed me

into.

The week before opening and right through opening night I was very nervous. I did not

have the confidence I had worked so hard to establish. The opening went off without a hitch but I

felt a keen knot in my stomach the entire time. I worked hard to do the work of the actor and be

present in the moment. Later upon reflection, it seemed that my body was sensing my old pat-

terns.

I have not been onstage like this in a few years and my nervous system remembered what

it was like before. It was like my historic emotions around performance were ignited and I could

not shake how much the new version of myself was radically different. The memory of the two

aspects of myself came together and were thrown into the emotional stakes and the reality of

what I was doing. The old self and the new wearing the same skin. What was new was the strat-

egy of the Four Animals. I could default to the metaphors of the animals that I wanted to keep in

mind. I could remind myself of what I needed to focus on to accomplish the task of performance

and stage combat.

The show today was good and I did not feel the nervousness of opening. After the show I

ran into an older couple who had seen the show as I was leaving the theater. I talked with them

for a long time and it was lovely to hear their excitement and enthusiasm for my work they had

just seen. They were interested in my story and my MFA work and they were old theatergoers

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and praised the production. Not only that but I realized that I had done my job, I had created

meaning communication and thrilled these wonderful strangers.

I came away with a greater appreciation for my own process and that my evolution and

expression had found its mark. Interacting with this couple about the show and my performance

became an unsolicited perspective on my work and has cemented the confidence and elation that

has made this experience of great value.

My takeaway is the ability to be more adaptable, more fluid. I think my ability to adapt

puts me ahead of my competition. Benaiah and Geof are fluid and adaptive, and I am modeling

my practice after them. And trying just to keep up!

(fig. 26)

CSF 2014, Photo Tim Orr.

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Chapter V: Conclusion.

Core Four Results.

As I began the work of the Core Four, I wanted a physical warm-up system that would

bring together and represent the work of the last two years as well as propel me into the future.

The Core Four in application has been a specific way for me to drop into a focused moment

while preparing my body for the rigors and demands of stage combat.

Not only does my body need to be available but also my spirit and my facility to embody

a moment of acting onstage. All too often in my experience with stage combat have I felt lacking

in being absolutely present to enter the action of a play. As I shed the incomplete attempts of my

past, I have integrated and enjoyed a more proficient and embodied performance. I HAVE im-

proved myself, and thereby improved my art. This is an ongoing adaptable process and the Core

Four will improve and adapt with me.

I feel that the postures are easily adaptable from strictly stage combat to just acting, and,

in fact, I’m noticing that as I’m using them in Colorado, they are changing. I feel that they will

have an elasticity; I’ll be able to shift the animals and concepts around depending on the work

being produced. The need will dictate how the system is adapted.

Moving forward, with the Core Four and the experience of using it in a professional stage

combat situation at Colorado Shakespeare Festival, I have a much greater awareness of how the

system can adapt to any given performance scenario, The Core Four will also be a tool for the

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education of actors and stage combatants and it can also be brought into rehearsals for choreog-

raphy when needed.

As I entered into this study two years ago, I wanted something concrete to show for the

work; I feel the Core Four meets this desire, as well as my experiences in Colorado, and new

confidence in my skills and physicality. Coming back out the other side I can back up my prac-

tice with rigorous exploration first hand. This has been a new system that I have created in this

final semester. I knew what I wanted I just didn’t always know what that meant or how it would

manifest.

Notes from Laiwan

“Good. I see it as where your emotions and authentic voice build your vocabulary as an actor and

stage combat performer… the better you know yourself and the more expansive your vocabulary,

the better your agility, precision, adaptability, flexibility, and range of feelings, etc.”

…excellent to be increasingly present all the time in any given moment, on stage or off stage.

good! ☺

…and that immediacy demanded physical courage which today’s violence and wars do not nec-

essarily need — such as using drones to bomb civilians etc. Codes of honor and war regulated

that war only be fought between armies and not with civilians, women and children. Such code

and honour does not seem to exist any longer. Thus your interest in codes of honour can be sig-

nificant and a model for larger issues of how to be a man in the world.

Peasants fighting and peasant rebellions are different from warfare though.

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I encourage you in the future to continue to invest in your ability to be a scholar, to take your im-

aginative innovation and intellect seriously, and become a contender. That is where you really

belong, on-stage and off-stage as a leader and quiet teacher of a difficult art rooted in somatic

and personal knowledge full of vulnerability and intimacy. Excellent!

-Laiwan

Reflections on Colorado and Henry 4, 1. Summer 2014

It is time to reflect on my experience in Colorado playing the Douglas. I will add this to the

end of the Portfolio, having returned to Seattle soon to graduate. This role lined up for my ener-

getically at the right time and so I reached for it, auditioned and was cast. I submitted a video au-

dition so I was cast sight unseen.

Going into the rehearsal process I knew I was right for the role and that I had a lot of ex-

perience to back up my work. Especially the past 2 years with Goddard and my in-depth work

toward Stage Combat and Interdisciplinary Arts. I also knew that the experience while being an

opportunity to work with very talented and respected artists, that at the end of the day, I was

hired to do a job and I would need to deliver.

I had never worked for CSF before and they took me on my audition and I did have some

reputation. Out of 400 people auditioning for the role I was cast from a national audition. I saw

the audition announcement on Facebook. Their Fight Choreographer Geof Kent who is nation-

ally respected in Stage Combat and was the President of the SAFD, recommended they cast me.

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My casting in this part, in this play, at this time, by these people, in this play is signifi-

cant on its own. The opportunity screamed at me and it was really my wife that convinced me to

accept the role. It seemed too good to be true and there would be work and risk involved.

I did an excellent video audition and sent more information to them on myself than the

audition notice asked. My audition monologue was from Henry 4, 1 and I had just done a Single

Sword renewal test with a recommendation in my G4 on video. I sent the video footage that I

had ready to go, not to mention a new current headshot. I was ready. The physical practice I had

been working on had put my core and adductors in my legs as the strongest muscles in my body

before I left.

I was given the choice by FD Geof Kent before coming out to Colorado of whether to

fight with two weapons or one. We decided on two. I was making choices about the work that

were going to challenge me and I knew would be fun and interesting artistically. Geof Kent then

gave me the choice of a big battle ax or a one-handed war ax and a one-handed broadsword

Claymore.

The two weapons system was a clear choice for each hand and I rehearsed with what I

had in my personal armory that was similar before leaving Seattle. There are some Filipino Mar-

tial Arts weapon systems that I have used and looked at in context of stage combat called Kali, or

Eskrima. It translates to a look onstage that is dynamic and dimensionally interesting in choreo-

graphic application. And it’s really fun to do with a big Broadsword and a war ax!

It was still challenging to get it into my body in a way that made sense. My biggest hur-

dles were dealing with the ax in my left hand that was weighted differently that the one-handed

sword in my right. Getting the right side of my body to move with the sword was easy… getting

my left side to initiate attack and defense with the ax was more challenging.

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I have often found through the Gyrotonic work that my body has two distinct sides and

they require a different kinesthetic engagement and consideration. Dyslexia I believe can be part

of it. Something for me to consider in the future is to integrate more fully the two halves of my

body. In any case it was a challenge and working with Geof was exciting.

He gave us freedom to input to the choreography as we built it because he knew we could

do it and he had other actors that required more help with less experience. I was pleased with the

work and the results and I was also showing for rehearsals that I was not called to observe the

process and learn from the actors and choreography. It was an excellent opportunity.

The other side to my process was the emotional and psychological elements that I ran

into. I found myself in a very precarious emotional situation around being unconfident, insecure

and anxious during the process. I developed an emotional ball or pit in my stomach that I could

not get to go away.

I worked hard to not let it affect my work and I knew the expectation was for me to show

up and do the work. This I did, and this I relied on no matter how I felt. And I was exceeding ex-

pectations. I checked in with the choreographer and the director. I also trusted these theater pro-

fessionals to let me know if I was not fulfilling my requirements or that I needed to look at the

things I was doing this never came and it was the quite the opposite. I was TOO hard on myself

and that was what was getting in the way!

After reflection, I realized that there were more than a few variables to spark my insecu-

rity. I hadn’t been onstage in at least six years. The actors around me had already put up three

other shows for the summer festival by the time I joined them so they were very comfortable al-

ready. Most of them knew each other, I didn’t really know anyone.

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Also the strong acute sense memory that I was experiencing around dusting off my acting

“self” came with a lot of memory of my old self, not the self I was and who I had been working

on becoming. However, at the same time, the new self was untested in this environment and so

insecure about how things might go.

Once I got in front of the audience, under lights, a couple of times the insecurity faded as

the new and the old integrated in me. But it was a trial by fire. Also the rehearsal process itself

was very fast. We mounted Henry 4, part 1 in 16 days; a very short period of time for a history

play since they can be complex and confusing. Sometimes it takes a little longer to rehearse them

and make sense of them.

I sought out some energetic message similar to my somatic in-depth practice and did not

feel it was a successful experience. The Gyrotonic session I also attempted did not feel as sup-

portive or helpful as my usual practice, which I attribute to a different trainer. Neither of the dis-

ciplines that I was used to using delivered the support I was looking for at that time. I was defi-

nitely feeling vulnerable myself so perhaps this is a good lesson for working outside my Seattle

support network.

I also missed my wife and I think this was the longest we’ve been away from each other.

I also got a perspective on the work we have been doing on ourselves and our relationship. I also

wasn’t very happy with Boulder or my housing. I couldn’t really control any of those things but

they still contributed. I also was stressed about this document and worked on it ceaselessly dur-

ing the rehearsal period transporting my iMac computer from Seattle to Boulder.

120

Things tend to work out. And it did for me in Boulder. I was pleased with the work and

so was everyone else and I met some wonderful and talented people. And I believe I will be con-

sidered for work in the future at CSF.

I feel taking this role has legitimized my practice and put my practice into application, as

well as giving me an opportunity to test my creation, The Core Four. I don’t believe that two

years ago I was in a place to accept or even consider, much less be ready for a role like this, in

this professionally advanced environment. It wasn’t out of my league but close.

The insecurity faded thankfully and I feel that every aspect of my practice was put into

application in preparation for this role. I can come out the other side having confidently estab-

lished my practice an my practice into the future as I feel I have remade myself, improved myself

to improve my art. I set out to do my best and use my whole self, and this work absolutely con-

firms this effort from top to bottom.

(fig. 27)

CSF 2014, Photo Tim Orr.

121

Annotations / Works Cited

Beer, Robert. The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs. Boston: Shambhala Inc. 1999.

Print.

Boughn, Jenn Zuko. Stage combat: fisticuffs, stunts, and swordplay for theater and film. New

York: Allworth Press, 2007. Print.

This manual deals with more than just stage combat moves; it also gives advice about at-

titudes in the field. One of the only stage combat manuals by a woman, this also explains

the realities of physical harm from unsafe stage combat. Jenn Zuko is not afraid to be

honest and truthful about the attitudes of ego and bravado in stage combat that get people

hurt.

Chaikin, Joseph. The Presence of the Actor. New York: Theater Communications Group, 1972.

Print.

Joseph Chaikin was an actor in New York and was the Founder of the avant-garde Open

Theater. He was one of the first directors to incorporate the Polish techniques of the great

Polish director Growtowski, who used disciplines of sound and movement to inform

character. I was trained in the methods of Growtowski, so this book was a compliment to

that work from a movement standpoint for me. This is a highly personal and in-depth

practice of acting. I find a lot of it applicable to stage movement and combat. The per-

sonal and philosophical components resonate as well.

Charrette, Robert. Fiore dei Liberi’s ARMIZARE. The Chivalric Martial Arts System of Il Fiori

di Battaglia. Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2011. Print.

122

This edition is a very lavish in depth account of Liberi’s work and martial art of the

Flower of Battle. Not only does it go into specific meaning of the art in its historical and

philosophical context, it takes the sketches and recreates them with photographs of com-

batants engaged in them. This book goes much farther than a translation and really delves

in to the layers of depth and how it can translate to an audience 600 years later.

Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge. Sensing, Feeling and Action: The Experiential Anatomy of BodyMind

Centering. MA: Contact Editions, 2012. Print.

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen is a developer of Body-Mind Centering. Body-Mind Centering

is an integrated and embodied approach to movement, the body and consciousness. This

book is a compilation of articles for her work in Contact Quarterly dance journal, 1980-

2009. Through movement, dance, and yoga, Cohen observes and tracks emotional reali-

ties in the various nervous systems and cellular awareness. This book has been pivotal for

me, as I have been able to track my somatic and therapeutic process through all of her ob-

servations. I have learned what my body is doing to my emotions and what my emotions

are doing to my body. Her discoveries here are in the classroom on the floor with people.

This is very helpful to understand how my body works to improve it.

Cohen, Robert. Acting Power. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1978.

Robert Cohen is an “Acting Theorist” and graduated in Fine Arts from Yale School of

Drama. This book contextualizes the process of acting and was a key ingredient to my

technique as an actor. Recommended and actually used by my acting professors from my

undergrad, I have referenced this book to bring the esoterica of the acting moment into

123

concrete and solid tactical usage onstage. As a theorist, Robert Cohen also provides simi-

lar perspective and clarity for teachers and choreographers. I reference this book often 20

years after my undergraduate acting training.

Girard, Dale Anthony. Actors on Guard: A Practical Guide for the Use of the Rapier and Dag-

ger for Stage and Screen. New York: Routledge, 1997. Print.

A complete guide to every aspect of rapier and dagger technique for stage and screen choreogra-

phy. A teaching tool for technique and historical context, I have used this book for other stage

combat techniques. These basics can be applied to other forms of stage combat. A stage combat

foundation from Dale Girard.

Lane, Richard. Swashbuckling: A Step-By-Step guide to the Art of Stage Combat and Theatrical

Swordplay. New York: Proscenium Publishers, 1999. Print.

A manual for foundation techniques and useful to me for years in the classroom and in rehearsal.

This is just as important as Dale Girard’s book, Actors on Guard.

Little, John. Edited. Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living. VT, Tuttle Pub-

lishing, 2000. Print.

“The spirit controls the body. - The active is controlled by the inactive - the active being

form or matter, and the inactive being spirit or mind.”

This small book has been the largest in influence. I have continually referred to this phi-

losophy as a guiding force and a surprising validation on my own ideas. It is a boiled

down idea that has shaped and excited the skeleton of my practice. It has also been a reas-

suring entity in my own exploration of myself in relation to my art form. Understanding

124

the performance aspect of my art form, Bruce Lee comes alive for me and helps to trans-

cend the struggles of art and life. John Little has brought together a complete book on

Bruce Lee’s philosophy on many different topics. As well as comments from other nota-

ble people from his life that were studying with him and from him like Steve McQueen,

Kareem Abdul Jabar. These perspectives continue to resonate for me in the internal emo-

tional work of being an artist and for everyday living.

Mondschien, Ken. The Knightly Art of Battle. California: Getty Publications, 2011. Print.

A journey into Fiore dei Liberi’s circa 1410 masterwork The Flower of Battle (Fior di

battaglia). This introduced me to this Italian Master’s work at the start of the renaissance.

The pen drawings can be worked out to their intended martial movement. This is a direct

path into this history when I put these sketches on their feet with a partner and tried to

work them out.

Pert, Candace B. Molecules of Emotion. Why You Feel the Way You Feel. New York, NY: Scrib-

ner. 1997. Print.

I was introduced to this book to better understand the practice of somatic emotional responses.

Dr. Pert launched her career with the discovery of the Opiate Receptors in the 1970s. I was

having strong emotional responses to this somatic deep tissue therapy and I understood it

as “body-psychotherapy” by Dr Pert. The comparisons between this molecular therapy and

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen are illuminating. The two women have met. My specific interest

was emotional somatic healing from the cumulative trauma identified and diagnosed from

my childhood. Dr. Pert helped me to understand the ways I could heal my emotions and

observes alternative modalities to wholeness and healing.

125

Pressfield, Stephen. The Warrior Ethos. New York: Black Irish Entertainment Inc. 2011. Print

“The Tenets of the Warrior ethos, directed inward, inspire us to contend against and defeat those enemies

within our own hearts.”

Steven Pressfield is a former Marine and writes this book with veterans returning from

combat in mind. This is a sparse book with very resonant philosophy. To fight the battles

within is Mr. Stevens answer to veterans and everyone who might need this no nonsense

approach. War and combat ends and to survive after that Mr. Pressfield suggests the bat-

tle with the self to become a better person. This has become one of my main themes of

my art practice and spiritual evolution.

Suddeth, J.Allen. Fight Directing for the Theatre. New Hampshire: Heinemann, 1996. Print.

I met and was a student of Allen in 2011 at the SAFD National Workshop. This book

goes beyond the other books and deals solely with fight directing. This has clarified as-

pects of fight choreography so that I have a greater understanding of my job going into

rehearsal. I will always come back to this book and Allen Suddeth for information.

Trungpa, Chogyam. Shambhala. The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Boston: Shambhala Publica-

tions Inc. 1984. Print.

The Sacred Path of the Warrior came to me from one of my best friends in 1994. It

filled a gap in me and ignited a path that I am still on. I have the original copy that I

was given. Its pages are worn. It has brought me a spiritual awareness that I can under-

stand and that I can do something about inside of me. The concept that the Sacred War-

126

rior battles with internal struggles only and does not make war externally. Also the con-

cepts of egolessness, awareness, and elation in these states of being were also introduced.

This is the beginning of my practice to improve myself to improve my art.

“What is the psoas muscle?” http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-psoas-muscle.htm

Why Walking Matters. http://kuow.org/post/why-walking-matters

Windsor, Guy. The Swordsman Companion: A Modern Training Manual for Medieval Long-

sword. 2004, 2013

This manual is self-published by Guy Windsor who lives in Finland. His book was recom-

mended to me by other colleagues in the SAFD whom I had told about my Fiori adapta-

tion I was working on. Mr. Windsor is a graduate of Edinburgh University and was an ac-

complished Eastern Martial artist started the Dawn Duellists Society in 1994 for the pur-

poses of re-enacting and learning Western European Martial Arts. In 1999 he started the

British Federation of Historical Swordplay and in 2001 opened the School of European

Swordsmanship. Mr. Windsors’ approach to European martial arts is straight forward and

he himself is exploring the medieval and renaissance sword masters and teaching their

methodology. He is not a theater practitioner, he talks about why he is not and what the

difference is between studying the martial art as opposed to telling a story onstage. He is

an excellent contrast to Mr. Charrette’s Armizare. Both excellent and both different on

the same topics.

Zarilli, Phillip B. Psychophysical Acting. An Intercultural Approach After Stanislavsky. NY,

Routeledge, 2009. Print.

127

“…the first point of reference for the psycho- within the compound term, psycho-physi-

cal, is not psychology per se, but rather the actor’s complete engagement of her/his en-

ergy, sensory awareness, and perception-in-action in the moment.” Phillip Zarilli ex-

pands and deepens the Stanislavski approach to acting by bringing his psychophysical ap-

proach. This is rooted in the body mind approaches of Asian/Indian martial arts. This

writing is dense and will be useful for any performing art. This has been instrumental in

defining my work and my movement and spiritual context to stage combat.