Choreography

I've come to enjoy choreography more and more these days. I've been working on a knife duel with Sifu Edge lately and it’s been a lot of fun. After watching a video on the net I thought it would be cool to choreograph a knife fight based around one person starting with the knife and the knife changing hands throughout the fight. I figured it would be a good way to showcase some disarming techniques. We've been teaching it to the I Ho Chuan class and we will probably perform it for the black belt demo.

I really like coming up with my own forms and techniques. The pole form I came up with was the first real weapon form I came up with completely on my own. I'm proud of the way that form turned out and since then I've gotten a bit of a craving for being original. Having the building blocks to just pick something up, play around and learn feels fantastic. Trying to come up with your own techniques really puts your kung fu knowledge to the test. Coming up with an idea and then seeing how realistic it is and how it can be applied is the best way to learn what is truly effective.

I've always been enthusiastic about choreographing fight scenes. I've always wanted to create a team, 2v2, 3v3, brawl but the opportunity hasn't come up yet. It would be neat to have the extra team assistance aspect added to a brawl. Maybe that can be my own project sometime, it would be nice to run the show once and create my own choreographed fight scene with other people.

I'm working on a form with my Kwan Dao now and its going to be challenging. The weapon is unlike any other I've ever used and it requires a fair amount of strength to use effectively. Once I build up enough muscle, blisters and skill I'm confidant I'll pull off some cool stuff. It probably couldn't ever be used in choreography though because of the weight and the amount of damage it could do in an accident.