Wednesday’s session was dedicated entirely to stage combat: unarmed and armed (swords).
We began with unarmed combat such as throwing punches. We
started with the health and safety precautions. Once we had paired up we stood
so we were facing one another and then we had to measure our safe distance by
our arm width. If our hands were too close to our partners face it meant we
were breaching the safe distance and were at risk of making physical contact, whereas
we were learning no-contact combat.
Slaps: The first slap we learnt was a simple face
slap. This is where you grab the collar of your partner’s shirt and when your
hand moves to slap across the slapping hand would meet the hand holding the collar,
creating the slapping sound.
!It is important that the head moves in the direction of the
slap to make it look realistic!
Another version of this slap is rather than holding onto a
collar of some point you just swing your hand around to clap with your other
hand if you’re not in a position to reach for the collar.
Punches: It is important when throwing stage punches
that you are always at a safe distance so as not to accidentally punch your
partner. Much like slaps punches have an audible sound when made and so we were
taught how to create naps. Naps are the sound that is made for the action of
punching someone. To make a nap you must hit your chest with your hand cupped
slightly to create a dense sound similar to that of someone being hit.
The punches we learnt included: a straight punch (arm goes
straight out), cross punch (punch diagonally) and a hook (the arm creates a
hook action when swinging around). Each of these punches also has different
reactions from the person being hit. Such as the person being hit with a
straight punch would jerk their head straight back at the force of the punch
bit if I was the cross punch someone from my left the “victim’s” head would
swing to their left.
Cross Punch
Having learnt these punches we were then taught the footwork
that goes with it, as no fight happens in one place. The steps are “advance”
and “retreat” – these are fencing terms. Advance
is to take steps towards your partner and retreat
is when you step away from your partner when they are advancing towards you. We
were then set the task of following the steps Graham called out and then
stopping and checking if our safe distance had increased or decreased. We found
that it is harder to take large retreating steps compared to advancing steps
and so this would affect the safe distance.
We then rehearsed the various punches we had been taught and
incorporating them with the footwork.
Crotch/Stomach Kicks: Kicks were the first combat we
learnt that involved contact. The basis of a kick to your partner is for a hand
to be held in front of that part of the body (crotch, stomach, face) and your
partner will kick your hand. The aim is for the top part of their foot to make
contact with your hand to make the nap sound. It is also important that the
hand held out is held out at a good distance from the body so as not to risk
the chance of your partner’s foot accidentally making contact with your hand.
Another way to do a crotch kick is to do it at an angle.
Your partner stands in a lunge position and you swing your leg round to make
contact with the inside of their thigh and it is up to your partner to react realistically
for the kick to be visually effective.
Ground kicks: This is when you are kicking someone
who is lying on the floor, this combat is non-contact as the aim is to stamp
your foot into the ground a couple of inches away from your partner’s body. The
effectiveness of the kick is all up to your partner and how they react, that is
an important rule in stage combat. It is all about the reaction that makes it
look realistic.
Hair pull: The hair pull is fake. The person pulling
the hair has no grip on the hair of their victim but has their hand held in a
fist on the top of the victim’s head. It is up to the victim to grab hold of
their partner’s fist and wrist and to verbally and physically react as if they
are being pulled about by their hair. This
move is an effective way to get someone on to the floor because you can “throw”
them down by their hair.
Choking: This move can be used at the end of a fight
as a way for one person to kill the other. With this move it is important that
the arms of the strangler do not wrap around the victims neck. The strangler creates
a triangle position around the victim’s neck and then the victim places their hands
on the stranglers arm and pulls away to give the impression of choking. This
move can last for as long as you would like it to and is generally done with
sounds of resistance from the victim.
Eye Gouge and Breaking the neck: Are both achieved by
the reactions of the “victim”, with the eye gauge their partner merely cups
their hand over their eye to create the illusion of “gouging” while the victim
writes around in pain. The breaking the neck move is led by the victim. They
are knelt between the legs of their partner whose arms are placed around their
head but it is up to the “victim” to move their head to create the illusion. To
further add to this a polo can be held between the victim’s teeth and they can
bite into it to create the sound of bone breaking.
Once we’d learned these unarmed combat positions we were
given ten minutes to create a “fight” that involved five moves with transitions,
such as advancing. The key piece of feedback everyone received was to watch the
placement of the moves on the stage, for example if you were to do a cross
punch side on to the audience it would be clear that the punch was being thrown
over the shoulder rather than at the face and this would break the illusion.
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