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Originally Posted by Ron Anderson
Hi, Jim.
Indeed, the rounded tip was no doubt useful. Good ballet dancers are hard to replace. 
On that point, there were several small indentations and marks all the way along the sword, as if it had been used in a mock sword fight. These only made sense when I realised it was a theatrical sword.
Certainly, it made no sense at all when I thought it might be a court or masonic sword.
Interesting, because I've not seen those kinds of marks on any real swords. And it just goes to show the way people imagine the way that swords are fought with is probably quite different from the way they were employed in a real life fight.
No doubt the actors/dancers here engaged in a lot of knocking swords together and prancing around on stage, and very little true cut and thrust. |
Hi Ron,
Absolutely, and it does seem almost comical in a sense when we think of those staged combats as they must have appeared in todays terms, but at the time they must have well carried the theme of the production. Those very same theatrics were of course the ancestors of the wonderful old classic films with Fairbanks and Flynn, the swashbuckling action, and the very cause of my lifelong affliction with the study of swords and arms.
I recall there was a course offered in college at one time that was indeed called 'Stage Combat', and was a fencing course attuned to using actual fencing technique in somewhat exaggerated sense as would be expected.
I believe the 'tutus' were optional
All the best,
Jim