The Sword Spectacular Weekend
A chance to cross swords with the stars of Highlander: The Series

Article and Photographs by Genise Graham

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Fight Class!

The core of Sword Spectacular Weekend was comprised of fight classes allowing attendees to learn directly from Anthony De Longis. Most of the SSW Guest Instructors assisted in these stage combat instructional activities, allowing each attendee the memorable experience of having their technique refined by highly experienced professionals.

Photo: Right - The dashing and gallant Anthony De Longis, illustrating blocking using minimal strength and gravity as your friend. The Beginner Class started with the basics: an understanding of various guard positions and simple parrying methods. We learned that in order to perform theatrical combat safely, each movement is numbered. The fight sequence is then choreographed with each person in the scene following the pre-arranged set of numbered movements. Always one to emphasize safety in the leaning and practice environment, Anthony taught the protocols of distancing, accurate targeting, and weapon control. The importance of proper skeletal alignment for impenetrable parries was introduced. The class covered various footwork patterns and blade-stroking drills. By the end of the class, attendees were able to perform choreographed cut-and-parry exchanges with their partners.

Photo: Right - Roberta Brown attentively watches each student's movements in order to fine-tune the technique. The Intermediate class utilized steel-bladed stage rapiers. Anthony covered various parries with epee and sabre fighting, circular parries and their evasions, attacks, and footwork combinations. In the Advanced class, Anthony placed students in a setting simulating a professional working set. Here, he directed as fight master while each member of the class acted as both an assistant choreographer and an on-camera performer. This gave attendees the creative challenge of assembling the moves from the Beginner and Intermediate classes into the most dramatic and dynamic combinations possible.

What is Theatrical Combat?

Says F. Braun McAsh, the fight director for Highlander: The Series, "Theatrical Combat means simulated combat within a very specific genre. And since this genre is within a dramatic medium, the purpose of the fight scene is to create dramatic purpose and value."

Because a fight scene is predetermined, it is the challenge of both the fight director and the actors to create a connection between the plot and motivations of the script and the fight scene itself.

Says Jason Carter, who portrayed the character of Marcus in the acclaimed series, Babylon 5, "Our job as actors is - for example - to take the words and actions defined in the script and to pretend as if we had just come up with it." Then, Jason stepped into the Marcus character right in front of us. "I spy with my little eye... something beginning with.... "B"...

"... Boxes!"

Connecting these core methods with the inspiring architecture of simulated fighting made these classes even more personal for the attendees, as it gave them the opportunity to take part in the magic.

The Fighting Style of Duncan MacLeod, The Highlander

Highlander - the title character in a story of the journeys of a 400-year-old Scottish immortal locked in a constant fight between good and evil - often finds himself fighting to the death to win the Prize. How does one devise a fighting style for the Highlander?

"The characters are centuries old and thus should not be locked into a single style of fighting, regardless of what their specific weapon is," says Braun. "Over time, they would incorporate any technique, Western or Eastern, that worked consistently, and they would develop their own. For the character of Duncan MacLeod, I’ve used techniques from Iaido, Kenjutsu, Hapo-no-Kamae, Happo-Giri, Hwa-Rang-Do, Arnis and Kali Escrima, Penkat Silat, and Western foot and cavalry sabre technique from the 18th and 19th century, plus a few moves that I invented myself through extrapolation. And that’s just for the katana!"

But what is the remarkable magic behind Highlander that continues to fascinate us? "Highlander forces you as a Fight Director to constantly invent because you are pitting weapons together that never met in history and consequently, have no precedent. When, for example, did a gladius hispanicus ever strike sparks with a dai-katana? Highlander, out of necessity, became a tour-de-force of mixed styles."

As representatives of Sword Forum Magazine, our interests focus primarily on historical swordsmanship and authentic marital arts. Thus, it was most refreshing to see that Braun also regarded historical swordsmanship seriously and drew from period manuals for dramatic venues. Braun's class describing the longsword (two-handed) techniques of Master Johannes of 1389 was most educational; Liechtenauer was a Master of Medieval sword fighting held in high regard in the historical academic community, as the techniques and methodologies he taught found their way into historical combat systems many hundreds of years later. Braun drew parallels between Western two-handed sword use and similar techniques of the Japanese katana.

"Theatrical fighting need not be antithetical to authenticity. Costume designers do their research, so why should fight directors be immune to historical style? There is over 520 years of written text documenting Western European sword technique and period manuals which to extrapolate or infer. As film expands its venue to bring wider ranges of historical subjects to a demanding audience, fight choreographers (and directors) should ensure that history be represented at least as well in the depiction of the sword as it is in costume and sets."

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