Using their phone cameras, students will learn the theory behind what makes contact hits believable and get opportunities to throw punches that “break the plane” to sell to the audience or camera.

Shakespeare’s first take of this iconic line may not have taken, but your enemy sure will! Point work never looked so deadly. Find the elegance matched with the exact precision of the smallsword. Specificity is not only badass, it’s beautiful.

Perfect technique is great and all, but it’s also incredibly BORING! In this class, intentionally unravel perfection to create character flaws; then, invite the triumphs and *fatal* pitfalls of those flaws to the table as we generate choreography.

Just because it’s a big sword doesn’t mean it should rely on strength alone. This class will use solo drilling to examine grip, footwork, and strike mechanics to encourage ease and fluidity in 2-handed swordplay.

This workshop breaks down the principles of movement dramaturgy, exploring tempo, rhythm, spatial relationships, intention, and elements of staging. Ideal for movement directors, stage directors, and fight directors looking to enhance their approach to storytelling through movement, and build dynamic staging/choreography.

This class will explore distance, footwork, and awareness by building partner exchanges common to modern combat striking sports. Learn to move and trade punches and kicks like an MMA fighter!

Explore how contemporary dance techniques can be used to craft abstract and visually striking fight sequences. This class focuses on dynamic movement, expressive combat storytelling, and the use of space in choreographed violence.

Learn the basics of bashing one another with sword and shield with Rushtar the Barbarian.

What happens when a properly committed attack lands you way too close to your opponent and that wonderful longsword blade becomes a liability? This class will explore a fight’s transition from “proper fencing measure” to “extreme proximity” and how the urgency of a fight can (and should) rise and fall with distance.

An introduction to consent and how to communicate in scenes of a more intimate nature. Students will learn how to express boundaries and some basic principles to use in rehearsals and performance.

Learn a series of knife on knife counter drills using slashes, stabs, and then slashes AND stabs! These flow platforms build comfort with the tool while educating the body on basic attacks and defenses.

Use the principles of Alexander Technique to find the lightness and ease that makes smallsword so effective as a weapon form and acting tool.

Close quarters gun fights are all the rage lately, and there are specific tricks and protocols to making those fights work, both on stage and on screen. From a simple “we both reached for the gun” moment to the most complex John Wick fight scenes, managing a firearm onstage and combined with unarmed choreography can be tricky, let’s make it safer.

A class exploring the complexities of sword and shield, especially as it impacts neuro-divergent students. This class also gives varying options and adjustments that are available in the discipline.

A lecture and Q&A on contracts and negotiation, from the perspective of someone who has been on both sides of the Fight/Intimacy Director and Producer table.

This class will explore the building blocks of grappling (push, pull, and grab) through touch connection and physical listening. The material in this class involves a high amount of physical contact with other participants.

When one hero faces many villains, there’s a lot of variables to consider. How best to tell an effective, safe, and very cool fight scene involving 3,4,5 fighters against one hero. Working the timing, finding the flow, taking advantage of the openings to keep all the fighters involved safe, effective, and active. Experience with knife and unarmed is recommended.

With just a few basic stage combat principles, you can dive into amazing lightsaber choreography that performed entirely with your eyes closed! Learn to sense your partner’s movements, gain sensitivity with the weapon, and use the Force!

Whether you have a personal portfolio, your own stage combat company, or hosting an event, a strong website presence is a must-have to capture visitor engagement. We’ll discuss the common do’s and don’ts many websites make, how to use SEO and CTAs effectively, and what the heck UI/UX/IA even means.

Have you ever received the note “too much GPM” (Grunts Per Move) but didn’t know how to fix it? Well, this is the workshop for you! Participants will learn about different resonance chambers, breathing patterns, and vowel sound variety that will give their fights musicality and raised stakes. Vocal safety and warm-ups will also be covered. This class will be a mixture of lecture, vocal and physical warm-ups, and unarmed fighting techniques that focus on creative vocal scoring and dynamic story telling.

On the page, a fight is made or waylaid by the level of description provided by its narrator. On the stage, explore how styles of self-narration can quickly level-up your fights when learning choreography.

This class will progressively build basic jump spin kicks through an easily achievable series of movements. If you can lift one knee in the air and hop on one foot you can build the foundations for awesome aerial kicks!

Learn what makes a disarm work! In this class, we’ll explore the different categories of disarm techniques that make them easier to remember, sell, and to invent!

Sometimes, realism isn’t the answer, nor is it the style your director wants—stylized fights require a different approach to movement, storytelling, and physical vocabulary. Whether you’re designing combat for Shakespeare, fantasy epics, or movement-based theatre, this workshop will challenge participants to think beyond traditional realism and learn more about the various styles throughout history.

A lecture and discussion on utilizing different university sources of funding to create an armory as Darrell successfully did at Frostburg State University, which everyone should take back to their own schools and execute.

This class will teach some basic consent practices as well as simple theatrical intimacy gestures, providing both practical and pedagogical tools and perspectives for working with neurodivergent collaborators in intimacy. All of which can ultimately make the artform more accessible.

The things that make smallsword unique can be mystifying, so let’s break it down and find the simplicity in approaching this weapon.

We have two weapons, so let’s use both! Use of double-fence concepts to control the blade and control the fight.

Learn to use the pommel and fulcrum of the sword to move it more efficiently in a fight rather than strong arming the sword.

You’ve got a complicated fight ahead — now what? Whether you’re performing, directing, or choreographing, this class walks through how to read a fight scene like a choreographer: identifying the story beats, character motivations, technical challenges, and production needs that shape the action. We’ll watch some iconic fight scenes and break them down together — What’s working? What’s not? What had to be considered behind the scenes? From adapting to cast limitations to working with budget, space, or script weirdness, we’ll cover how to make the chaos make sense.

Getting slapped hurts. Getting punched hurts. Getting your hair pulled…really hurts. But how much? To what extent? For how long? But what about adrenaline, would it even hurt at all? This class will explore the different ways in which we as performers can communicate to the audience that we are in pain. We will work on specifying our reactions to different types of attacks in terms of vocals, physicality, and the maintaining of pain or injury as we move forward.

Learn some of the fundamentals of striking and chain wrestling that are integral to the over-the-top world of professional wrestling and help make it unique from traditional stage combat!

Swish, swish, en garde! Capes not only make you look fabulous but they can be used offensively in a fight. This class will explore how a simple fabric can create terrifying attacks against an opponent.

The staff is big, and the human is small? Not a problem. Learn how to move a staff on your structure regardless of stature.

You've taken the classes, the workshops, the tests ... so what now? This lecture and discussion will cover some tools and strategies that will aid you in continuing your stage combat education beyond the SPT.

Hit hard, fight fast, and eat dirt. This choreo class will build fights quickly with the aim of taking the foot off the brakes.

Knife fighting, with an emphasis in techniques explored in “Put em down, take em out” and “knives, knife fighting and related hassles” and other terrifying publications.

The shadow drill from Filipino Martial Arts is an incredibly versatile training methodology that we can employ with our weapons to develop footwork, distance, timing, and flow with our partner!

Sure, maybe you've done a mass battle before, but have you ever done a mass battle on a revolving stage? Come learn how to safely work on a spinning stage and then see what exciting opportunities it provides. You'll learn how to create interesting character choices that will enhance the overall story of the battle. We'll cover tips for creating patterns and working with music to help with timing. It's gonna be blast - hope to see you there!

Being a Fight Director is not just about creating safe and effective dramatic violence on the stage. Building relationships with designers, doing your homework, knowing which market you want to be in and how to get there, joining the union, marketing yourself, knowing when to be flexible, knowing when not to, and making everyone else’s life easier. These are a few topics we will cover in a discussion about the vital things that a Fight Director should be doing when not engaged in what most think of as “the job” (actually working with the actors).