A (belated) Report from the Road
The Western Martial Arts Workshop hosted by the Chicago Swordplay Guild is one of the premier WMA events in North America lasting for four days. This year it celebrated its 25th anniversary. Several of us from Signum Corvus were fortunate enough to be able to attend this amazing event, this year.
The first WMAW had very humble beginnings, requiring but a single room for its 30 odd attendants from New York, Toronto and Chicago. For the past few years the event has been hosted at the lovely DeKoven Center, a ne0-gothic campus on the shore of Lake Michigan.
The event was notable because it featured instructors that were from the early days of WMA alongside a new generation that are making significant contributions to our understanding of the Art, from social, academic and martial aspects. Indeed, one of the things that makes the WMAW unique is it’s combination of academic and practical learning. This range included
lectures on transcribing and translating manuscripts to discussing the ethics of a messer fight. Also of note were workshops that were a combination of lecture and physical activity, such as Charle’s Lin’s “Social Violence Scenarios”, or Adam Franti’s “Train Like a Landsknecht.”
Each of us (Vlad, Andriy, Nick, & Jeff) had our favourite workshops. Indeed, the greatest problem with this event was its plethora of options. In some cases we had signed up for the same workshops, but frequently, our choices reflected our diverse interests.
Vlad pointed to two particular favourites, the first being Dr. Bill Ernoehazy’s session on the Hungarian Fighting Arts, where they explored the early days of European sabre. The second one was Ralf Gutzeit’s “Die Kunst des Verführens: The art of seduction in the Long sword of Joachim Meyer.” This workshop was fascinating for a few reasons. The first was the focus of the session itself, which was the idea of seduction in the fight — that is, to convince your partner to follow your lead so that you might gain and maintain control. The second was the minimal nature of the gear — it was a wonderful introduction to the use of blossfechten as a way of understanding advantage. The movements were all slow and controlled, and it really helped participants understand the role of tactical thinking in a match.
For Andriy, it was also a toss-up between two favourites. One he shared with Vlad, namely Bill Ernoehazy’s Hungarian sabre workshop. His other favourite was “ ‘In the Manner Of’ – Polyfunctional Actions in Destreza” hosted by Puck Curtis. This explored our tendency to name things, be they actions, guards or attacks. But sometimes the names obscure more than they reveal. This workshop helped participants understand the fundamental geometries of a fight, and how to utilize them.
Another instructor took an approach that could be considered as diametrically opposed to this. Joshua Wiest’s poetically entitled, “Nymphs and Satyrs: The Tactics and Strategies of Bolognese Swordsmanship,” examined the richness of the language, poetry and metaphor that the Bolognese masters used in their books. By exploring their language, and its underlying truths, Joshua worked to help the participants better understand their own approach to a fight. With this insight he demonstrated how they might use this knowledge to improve the practical aspects of their fencing. This was one of Nick’s favourites, not so surprising given his focus on Bolognese swordsmanship.
I (Jeff) was probably most impacted by the first class I took: “From All Angles: Lignitzer’s Sword & Buckler” with Christian Tobler. This was exceptionally exciting for me, as I’ve recently been studying German longsword and the key secondary source I’ve been using was written by Christian. So to me he was a bit of a rockstar.
He was a wonderful teacher, able to take the six plays (usually 1-2 pages in the glosses) of Lignitzer’s sword and buckler and present it all within two hours. It was a great example of just how intensive the workshops could be — but also of just how much there was to learn! He did a wonderful job of explaining the plays, taking us through them in a very orderly, stepwise fashion — focussing on key points of movement, and then stringing them together into the play. It was a workshop as much about how to teach a play as much as it was about learning the plays themselves.
Afterwards, I looked at Lignitzer’s original text (translated) and my admiration for Christian’s abilities grew, given how he was able to glean so much insight from such succinct descriptions.
Other notable events included the Armoured Deed of Arms, which was one of the best demonstrations of fully armoured combat that I’ve ever seen. It had the flair and ceremony of the medieval tournaments. The variety of harness exhibited by the participants was impressive, as was their capabilities.
I would also be amiss if I didn’t mention the evening festivities, where fancy dress (medieval, renaissance, and otherwise) were strongly encouraged. Here, we were able to discuss what we’d learnt in the first few days — or just gossip like renaissance courtiers.
Overall, on leaving the event, I was both exhausted and exhilarated. It is somewhat humbling to be part of a community that has grown from a small group of committed (or perhaps a little mad) enthusiasts into a movement that now spans continents and embraces thousands of people. I would strongly encourage anyone who has spent a couple of years in the Salle to take part in WMAW — it will be an eye-opening experience.
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