Very nicely choreographed public display of Renaissance fighting with various weapons. They won two well deserved golds in an international competition. And outfits to die for too…
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I do not get it. Do they find that sort of thing entertaining in Italy? Not as bad as watching Mensur or, godforbid, MMA. Yet excruciating nonetheless. Please tell us, RN, that you watch other things.
Well you know I do, Jeffrey. But I actually think they do a good job. There are a couple of quirky things there for sure, spinning around etc, but take it for what it is; a public show meant to entertain.
They do include quite a few recognizable techniques and some of it with quite good intensity even, which is difficult without protection in front of an audience at a public display. Have you tried anything similar yourself? Things can go wrong so easily, with nervousness, over-eagerness and fear and I have seen bad injuries happen and some very close instances with near loss of eyes and teeth too as the margins of error are so small. One guy even had a sword tip in his mouth, twice, spitting blood for a bit…
Public displays are in my opinion an important of what we should do as it is a great way of educating the public. It is often overlooked though. Not that it has to be done in historical clothing, or at Ren faires etc, but their outfits are also quite nicely done.
Hello Roger – I got misunderstood yet again online: That stage combat group did a complex choreography of theatrical swordplay (i.e. not martial arts) which consisted of a supposedly funny domestic violence story involving a pregnant woman having a fight with her abusive husband and eventually losing. I did not find that entertaining. I found it loutish, dismaying and icky to watch. If you like it for its technical merits, then that is fine, you do no wrong thusly. But the ill nature of that performance was off-putting to me. I gave it a chance, and you know, I bloody well hated it.
Ah sorry Jeff! I completely misunderstood you. I actually didn’t even catch her being “pregnant”. Still, domestic violence was certainly not unusual in the time period it portrays and I think the team looked at it the other way around, wishing to show a strong woman quite capable of fighting back on her own, with skill, not taking crap from her idiot lover. Seems as if there were a few of those in history too.
If anything, I think the man is portrayed more stereotypically here, being stupid and easily fooled by the opposite sex and he seems to be the one who takes the most of a beating, taking punches causing him to fall on his ass twice, another causing him to spin around, a knopf in the face, and a good knopschlag and a kick to the gut and another in the groin. She only takes one hit to the face in the beginning and then something to the side once, none of it “effective”.
So, I guess it depends on how you look at it.