So this guy walks into an arm-bar....
It's beginning to look like I have time for only three out of five: sleep, socializing, actually getting work done, taking a stage combat class, and blogging about stage combat. The solution is clearly to drink more coffee, since I wouldn't give up late-night debate parties, fake violence, or the intertubes for anything. Precioussss.
Thankfully, for those of us running on one brain cell, last class we actually repeated some techniques. There were a lot of people missing last week for chokes and hair-pulls, so Joe takes pity.
Also, today, I notice that Nathan is wearing a NYRF 2006 t-shirt. I knew I recognized him! Turns out he played a sheriff's guard for a while and knows ladyjoust and barleymash. The world is tiny! Teeny tiny.
After we streeeeetch, Joe lines us up and asks if we remember a rather cruel schoolyard game. I hold out my hands palm-up, you hold out yours palm-down, and I try to get your hands as red and stinging as possible. (We used to call it "hot hands.") We're going to play this game, Joe says, but -- in round one -- your objective is to touch your partner as lightly as possible. This isn't that hard, and we do it for a bit.
Round 2 -- You must maintain eye contact at all times, and you can only try to tap your partner's opposite hand (their left with your left, rather than the quick turn-over-and-slap). This is harder.
Round 3 -- Both kinds of tapping are allowed again, but the victim can ONLY move the hand that is being targeted, not just jump back with both. This is bloody impossible and results in hand-dyslexia.
Round 4 -- The attacker's goal changes: they want to NOT to have their partner's hand there when they go to slap it. And no over-telegraphing. This works out only slightly better than round 3.
Afterwards, we have a warm-up postmortem. Okay, so we all got that this was another partnering exercise, and that we were supposed to be thinking about eye contact and cuing, but everyone came up with neat little ways to let the victim know which hand was the target: eye movements, a subtle change in the upward pressure of the supporting palm, a finger-tap. I love neat cues as much as I love neat ways of making noise. Stage combat is terribly clever. :0)
We repeat last week's series of hair-pulls and chokes, putting them into a short sequence before taking a water break and moving upstairs to the big room. Once there, we gather around Joe and Nathan. Building on what we've said about natural reactions to some of these attacks, Joe starts by saying that people will do anything to get away from pain. In stage combat, when it doesn't actually hurt, we need to think for a minute about what that "anything" would really be. Case in point: the behind-the-back arm lock.
Put your arm behind your back and bend your elbow ninety degrees. This is nothing. Bend it more, and you may feel a little stretch at the front of your shoulder, or you may not. A lot of people can comfortably reach most of the way up their spines. The point of the behind-the-back arm lock is that when someone else takes your arm behind your back and pulls your wrist up, they have enough leverage that the little stretch in the front of your shoulder is suddenly an excruciatingly painful, joint-popping force. Joe tells us to try this the next time we're taking a chicken apart; Courtney, a vegetarian, is grossed out.
When someone has you in this arm lock, you go where they want you to go, or the pain in your shoulder increases and the joint starts to separate. That's why you see the police doing it. So when we fake the arm lock, which doesn't hurt at all, we have to be very mindful of the fact that we shouldn't thrash about. If we were really in this arm lock, we wouldn't want to. What we would naturally do is rise up on our toes, on the theory that if my torso goes up and my arm stays where it was a second ago, my wrist will be further down my spine and my shoulder won't hurt so much. Of course, the person applying the pressure can just respond to this change, but Joe reminds us that all living things have an instinct to get away from pain. Someone does this to you, you don't think, "Well, if I go on tip-toe, he'll adjust his hold anyway, so I might as well not do it..." No! Ow -> tip-toes.
To fake the arm lock, Joe approaches Nathan from behind, stopping slightly behind Nathan with his left foot splitting Nathan's feet so that their bodies are staggered when viewed from the front, like, I dunno, by an audience. (Joe refers to this as "being able to wave hi to Mom.") Joe grabs Nathan's left shoulder with his left hand over the top. This is the cue, and in the illusion, it helps the attacker control the victim and pull him further down into the arm lock. Joe then grabs Nathan's right forearm (remember: never on the joint!) with his right hand. Then Nathan puts his arm behind his back. This is where Nathan has to be paying attention to his cue and ready to put his own arm behind his back, because if he leaves Joe hanging, a) we lose the illusion that Joe is the one in control of Nathan's arm and b) Joe might be tempted to actually go ahead and move Nathan's arm for him.
Now Nathan's arm is behind his back, his elbow at whatever angle is comfortable for him. Nathan keeps his upper right arm tight to the side of his chest to make it look like his arm is being forced back and to the left; any gap between his arm and his side just looks dumb. Nathan is on his toes, his chest slightly pushed out, his right shoulder crooked a little higher than his left, a look of sheer terror on his face. Joe's job is to play that he's pushing Nathan's lower right arm up his back, so Joe takes a low, stable stance and gets his own forearm under his wrist (as in, he's pushing up through his forearm into his hand, using the big muscles in his shoulders, rather than trying to lever Nathan's arm up from the elbow). Depending on the angle of Nathan's right forearm, he may have to make a fist to avoid having his hand visible on his left side. The behind-the-back arm lock!
A variation: Joe approaches Nathan from behind. He puts his left hand on Nathan's right shoulder -- not on top of his shoulder like before, but planting his palm on the back of the shoulder or, ideally, slightly inside of the joint, on the flatter, meatier, shoulder-blade bit. This is, again, the cue. Joe grabs Nathan's right forearm with his right hand. Nathan moves his own right arm back, rolling his shoulder forward and keeping his elbow straight, as if Joe were pushing on his shoulder and pulling on his forearm. This would create the same problem above: do what I want, or I'll dislocate your shoulder. As the victim, the temptation in this one is to bend too far forward and hide your face from the audience. As the attacker, the temptation is to apply ANY PRESSURE AT ALL to your hands. Don't. This isn't like an off-line face punch that goes a foot wide of your partner's anatomy -- you actually have your hands on someone and could actually hurt them by pulling, which is why it's important to pay attention to each other, pick up your cues, and go slowly. Usual warnings are doubled.
We partner up to practice these in a scene. I'm working with Susannah, and I make a mental note to stop working with other first-timers; Joe has encouraged first-timers to test with old hands. But Susannah and I do fine in the -- almost wrote "combination," which actually works here -- in the scene. I come up behind Susannah, put my left hand on her left shoulder, and grab her right forearm. She puts her right arm behind her back, rises to her toes, and makes owie noises. Joe directs the attackers to growl, "Where is it?" Susannah wrenches her left shoulder forward and steps forward out of the arm lock, but I still have her right forearm in my right hand and she's turned to face me. (Joe: "Don't step-and-turn. You're not expecting to have to turn, you're expecting to walk away. Go forward, and then play how you get turned by their grip.") I ask, "Where's the money?" She reaches for my throat with her left hand, shakes her right hand free, and gets both of her hands into the "collar" position in time to anchor on my upper chest. I grab her forearms, reinforce the choke down into my chest, tuck my chin unattractively, and hunch my shoulders. She tells me "You'll never find it" as she throttles me. (Gotta love's Joe's dialogue.) Then I get the idea to pull her hair, let go of her right forearm, cue with my open right hand at the level of her head, and shoot my hand to the side of her head and grab nothing. She lets go of my throat with her right hand to reinforce the hairpull; her left hand drops away a second later. She flings herself -- controlledly! -- in a semicircle, around my right side, as if I were pulling her by the hair. She lets go of my hand, I "let go" of her hair, and she takes a dramatic pause before saying, "Damn you."
When we perform this for the class, Joe's note is to watch the struggles. Our energy is translating into too much unnecessary movement, specifically of the feet. What your feet do is choreographed, too! I resolve to "stick it" in the future.
Walking home, temptation proved too much and I bought an apple-cake from the Whole Foods Market in Columbus Circle for the Jewish New Year. Nom. (Belated, by the time I finish this post!) shana tova, all.
Thankfully, for those of us running on one brain cell, last class we actually repeated some techniques. There were a lot of people missing last week for chokes and hair-pulls, so Joe takes pity.
Also, today, I notice that Nathan is wearing a NYRF 2006 t-shirt. I knew I recognized him! Turns out he played a sheriff's guard for a while and knows ladyjoust and barleymash. The world is tiny! Teeny tiny.
After we streeeeetch, Joe lines us up and asks if we remember a rather cruel schoolyard game. I hold out my hands palm-up, you hold out yours palm-down, and I try to get your hands as red and stinging as possible. (We used to call it "hot hands.") We're going to play this game, Joe says, but -- in round one -- your objective is to touch your partner as lightly as possible. This isn't that hard, and we do it for a bit.
Round 2 -- You must maintain eye contact at all times, and you can only try to tap your partner's opposite hand (their left with your left, rather than the quick turn-over-and-slap). This is harder.
Round 3 -- Both kinds of tapping are allowed again, but the victim can ONLY move the hand that is being targeted, not just jump back with both. This is bloody impossible and results in hand-dyslexia.
Round 4 -- The attacker's goal changes: they want to NOT to have their partner's hand there when they go to slap it. And no over-telegraphing. This works out only slightly better than round 3.
Afterwards, we have a warm-up postmortem. Okay, so we all got that this was another partnering exercise, and that we were supposed to be thinking about eye contact and cuing, but everyone came up with neat little ways to let the victim know which hand was the target: eye movements, a subtle change in the upward pressure of the supporting palm, a finger-tap. I love neat cues as much as I love neat ways of making noise. Stage combat is terribly clever. :0)
We repeat last week's series of hair-pulls and chokes, putting them into a short sequence before taking a water break and moving upstairs to the big room. Once there, we gather around Joe and Nathan. Building on what we've said about natural reactions to some of these attacks, Joe starts by saying that people will do anything to get away from pain. In stage combat, when it doesn't actually hurt, we need to think for a minute about what that "anything" would really be. Case in point: the behind-the-back arm lock.
Put your arm behind your back and bend your elbow ninety degrees. This is nothing. Bend it more, and you may feel a little stretch at the front of your shoulder, or you may not. A lot of people can comfortably reach most of the way up their spines. The point of the behind-the-back arm lock is that when someone else takes your arm behind your back and pulls your wrist up, they have enough leverage that the little stretch in the front of your shoulder is suddenly an excruciatingly painful, joint-popping force. Joe tells us to try this the next time we're taking a chicken apart; Courtney, a vegetarian, is grossed out.
When someone has you in this arm lock, you go where they want you to go, or the pain in your shoulder increases and the joint starts to separate. That's why you see the police doing it. So when we fake the arm lock, which doesn't hurt at all, we have to be very mindful of the fact that we shouldn't thrash about. If we were really in this arm lock, we wouldn't want to. What we would naturally do is rise up on our toes, on the theory that if my torso goes up and my arm stays where it was a second ago, my wrist will be further down my spine and my shoulder won't hurt so much. Of course, the person applying the pressure can just respond to this change, but Joe reminds us that all living things have an instinct to get away from pain. Someone does this to you, you don't think, "Well, if I go on tip-toe, he'll adjust his hold anyway, so I might as well not do it..." No! Ow -> tip-toes.
To fake the arm lock, Joe approaches Nathan from behind, stopping slightly behind Nathan with his left foot splitting Nathan's feet so that their bodies are staggered when viewed from the front, like, I dunno, by an audience. (Joe refers to this as "being able to wave hi to Mom.") Joe grabs Nathan's left shoulder with his left hand over the top. This is the cue, and in the illusion, it helps the attacker control the victim and pull him further down into the arm lock. Joe then grabs Nathan's right forearm (remember: never on the joint!) with his right hand. Then Nathan puts his arm behind his back. This is where Nathan has to be paying attention to his cue and ready to put his own arm behind his back, because if he leaves Joe hanging, a) we lose the illusion that Joe is the one in control of Nathan's arm and b) Joe might be tempted to actually go ahead and move Nathan's arm for him.
Now Nathan's arm is behind his back, his elbow at whatever angle is comfortable for him. Nathan keeps his upper right arm tight to the side of his chest to make it look like his arm is being forced back and to the left; any gap between his arm and his side just looks dumb. Nathan is on his toes, his chest slightly pushed out, his right shoulder crooked a little higher than his left, a look of sheer terror on his face. Joe's job is to play that he's pushing Nathan's lower right arm up his back, so Joe takes a low, stable stance and gets his own forearm under his wrist (as in, he's pushing up through his forearm into his hand, using the big muscles in his shoulders, rather than trying to lever Nathan's arm up from the elbow). Depending on the angle of Nathan's right forearm, he may have to make a fist to avoid having his hand visible on his left side. The behind-the-back arm lock!
A variation: Joe approaches Nathan from behind. He puts his left hand on Nathan's right shoulder -- not on top of his shoulder like before, but planting his palm on the back of the shoulder or, ideally, slightly inside of the joint, on the flatter, meatier, shoulder-blade bit. This is, again, the cue. Joe grabs Nathan's right forearm with his right hand. Nathan moves his own right arm back, rolling his shoulder forward and keeping his elbow straight, as if Joe were pushing on his shoulder and pulling on his forearm. This would create the same problem above: do what I want, or I'll dislocate your shoulder. As the victim, the temptation in this one is to bend too far forward and hide your face from the audience. As the attacker, the temptation is to apply ANY PRESSURE AT ALL to your hands. Don't. This isn't like an off-line face punch that goes a foot wide of your partner's anatomy -- you actually have your hands on someone and could actually hurt them by pulling, which is why it's important to pay attention to each other, pick up your cues, and go slowly. Usual warnings are doubled.
We partner up to practice these in a scene. I'm working with Susannah, and I make a mental note to stop working with other first-timers; Joe has encouraged first-timers to test with old hands. But Susannah and I do fine in the -- almost wrote "combination," which actually works here -- in the scene. I come up behind Susannah, put my left hand on her left shoulder, and grab her right forearm. She puts her right arm behind her back, rises to her toes, and makes owie noises. Joe directs the attackers to growl, "Where is it?" Susannah wrenches her left shoulder forward and steps forward out of the arm lock, but I still have her right forearm in my right hand and she's turned to face me. (Joe: "Don't step-and-turn. You're not expecting to have to turn, you're expecting to walk away. Go forward, and then play how you get turned by their grip.") I ask, "Where's the money?" She reaches for my throat with her left hand, shakes her right hand free, and gets both of her hands into the "collar" position in time to anchor on my upper chest. I grab her forearms, reinforce the choke down into my chest, tuck my chin unattractively, and hunch my shoulders. She tells me "You'll never find it" as she throttles me. (Gotta love's Joe's dialogue.) Then I get the idea to pull her hair, let go of her right forearm, cue with my open right hand at the level of her head, and shoot my hand to the side of her head and grab nothing. She lets go of my throat with her right hand to reinforce the hairpull; her left hand drops away a second later. She flings herself -- controlledly! -- in a semicircle, around my right side, as if I were pulling her by the hair. She lets go of my hand, I "let go" of her hair, and she takes a dramatic pause before saying, "Damn you."
When we perform this for the class, Joe's note is to watch the struggles. Our energy is translating into too much unnecessary movement, specifically of the feet. What your feet do is choreographed, too! I resolve to "stick it" in the future.
Walking home, temptation proved too much and I bought an apple-cake from the Whole Foods Market in Columbus Circle for the Jewish New Year. Nom. (Belated, by the time I finish this post!) shana tova, all.