As a fight choreographer I will face quite a fair amount of issues along the way, the biggest one right now being corona virus, this is a big problem for me as staged combat requires for close up interactions and may involve physical contact depending on the type of fight that is being used. Hand-to-hand combat will definitely involve physical contact, however sword fights and possibly even armed fights (Example; gun fights) will have much less physical contact. This is a bit of an unavoidable issue at the moment, however there are ways to get around it, more or less… that would be by cutting down half of the ‘class’ so there are two groups, group A, and group B, and then I would label different weeks, week A, and group B for the corresponding groups. with that being said we can also maximise the use of masks when not in combat (if preferred) and make permanent pairs for our time together. This would allow everyone to learn at a good pace and it will minimalize chances of spreading corona virus, and if anyone is showing symptoms I will hand out a instruction manual sort of hand made book by me with all the things we will be covering during their time self isolating. Personally I think that this would work very well considering the circumstances because it allows everyone to take their time and stay distant while still learning all there is to learn.
there is also the equipment to think about, if we’re doing sword fighting I will label each sword and it will have specific users so we have 1 sword for one person and keep it that way. We would wipe the swords before and after they are used by their owner, this way all the equipment is clean and organized so that we stop the spread. I think this works out well because it keeps everything and everyone organized and safe as we’re not using other people’s equipment, we would be using our own.
now that all precautions have been taken to stop the spread of covid-19, all that’s left is the possibility of physical injuries, in case of injury before getting started with teaching anyone I would have everyone sign consent forms in the case that they do get injured. I will start off slow to make sure everyone is taking everything in because the start is the most important part as I would be teaching all the parry’s and blocks first to avoid injury later on, so before moving on to the attack phase I would make sure everyone knows what they are doing to protect themselves. This is by far the best way that I know off to prevent future injury in staged combat. It works because at the start everyone is eager to learn and with getting the basics of blocking and parrying down really gives every one a boost in moral and gets them fired up for what’s next to come.
NickForstmanClarendon 