Action choreographer
Creating safe illusions of combat for stage and screen.
Action choreography, also known as stage combat or fight choreography, is a specialized technique in theatre that creates the illusion of physical combat without harming performers. It is employed in live stage plays, operatic and ballet productions, and has expanded to include filmed fighting sequences. Actors with backgrounds in dance, gymnastics, or martial arts training often excel in this field.
Quick Facts
- First known gallery exhibition
- Clashing Steel: The Art of Stage Combat, July-September 2025 at Culture Lab LIC
- Curators
- Meron Langsner
- Edjo Wheeler
- Jesse Belsky
- Early film influence
- Douglas Fairbanks in 1920 first asked a fencing master for a cinema fencing scene
- Swashbuckling revival
- 1970s, following The Three Musketeers (1973)
Facts from the source article.
History
The history of staged combat and mock fighting reaches back to antiquity. Aristotle noted that tragedy is conflict between people, and ritualized mock combat often evolves into war dances in warrior societies. Examples include the struggle in Aristophanes' Lysistrata and an ancient Egyptian religious festival described by Herodotus where participants beat each other with staves without fatalities. Many ancient civilizations used symbolic gestures, such as bringing a weapon to a throat without touching it, to represent violence. Fights staged for entertainment could be earnest for the combatants, as with Roman gladiators and medieval judicial duels. The medieval tournament and joust were competitive ritualized mock combat; by the time of Maximilian I, jousting became a high-prestige sport with specialized equipment to minimize injury. In the Late Middle Ages, staged fencing bouts grew popular at fencing schools, and some German fechtbuch include flamboyant techniques for Klopffechten, distinguishing mock fights (fechten zu schimpf) from real combat (fechten zu ernst).
Techniques
Stage combat training includes unarmed skills such as illusory slaps, punches, kicks, throws, and holds, as well as theatrical fencing with rapier and dagger, smallsword, broadsword, quarterstaff, and knives. It also incorporates professional wrestling and various martial arts. Most techniques derive from actual fighting but are modified for safety; for instance, a safe slap illusion involves no actual contact with the victim's face. The overriding concern is safety for actors and audience, leading to adaptations such as extending sword attacks past a partner's body or aiming short of apparent targets. Actors must operate with high complicity and communication to ensure a safe, exciting fight. Distance is a key factor: many attacks are performed 'out of distance' to prevent accidental striking. Professional judgment determines the technical level appropriate for a performer, considering rehearsal time and director expectations.
Weapons
For stage combat, all weapon edges are dulled and points blunted to prevent severe injury from accidental stabbing. Weapons used in performance must be certified as combat-ready to avoid blades breaking off. The first known gallery exhibition of stage weaponry, Clashing Steel: The Art of Stage Combat, took place in July-September 2025 at Culture Lab LIC, curated by Meron Langsner, Edjo Wheeler, and Jesse Belsky. Melee weapons such as spears, axes, maces, and flails are used in large battle scenes requiring ample space. Quarterstaffs are also suited to large playing spaces; a famous quarterstaff fight appears in the Robin Hood ballad. Modern quarterstaff choreography has integrated techniques from the bō staff of Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, originating around 1447, as seen in the Kabuki play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (1748). Replicating Asian martial arts on stage often imitates cinematic representations rather than actual practices, using stylized movements. The Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company, led by Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker, built a genre around elaborate martial arts fight scenes. Lanford Wilson's Burn This includes a fight scene with Aikido and Karate elements. Stephen Sondheim's Company features martial arts in the song 'The Little Things You Do Together.' Pan Asian Rep produced Shogun MacBeth twice, transposing Shakespeare to feudal Japan with appropriate swordplay, and Ping Chong created a stage version of Kurosawa's Throne of Blood.
Types
Stage combat has roots in Medieval theatre and enters classical choreography with Elizabethan drama, notably Shakespeare's frequent stage direction 'they fight.' Classical stage plays with sword fight scenes include Romeo and Juliet (1597), Henry IV (1597), Hamlet (circa 1600), Macbeth (circa 1605), King Lear (1606), Troilus and Cressida (1609), 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (circa 1630), The Rover (1677), Die Räuber (1781), and Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). Cinema inherited choreographed fights from theatre; Douglas Fairbanks in 1920 was the first film director to engage a fencing master for a fencing scene. A second wave of swashbuckling films began with Errol Flynn in 1935, and renewed interest arose in the 1970s following The Three Musketeers (1973). The Star Wars films, choreographed by Bob Anderson and Peter Diamond (Episodes IV, V, VI) and Nick Gillard (Episodes I, II, III), use swordsmanship techniques from existing martial arts with fantasy weapons. The Lord of the Rings, also choreographed by Bob Anderson, employed fantasy weapons and fighting styles designed by Tony Wolf.
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