Virtual Paddy Package Class Descriptions

Our bodies form movement patterns and habits throughout our lives – through physical patterning and training, sociocultural influences and also through mental and emotional characteristics. Once a neuromuscular pattern is formed, the body tends to stick with it – like a well-worn path. This is fine until you want to learn new physical skills, embody physical dexterity, or just learn to move with freedom and efficiency. This session is a deep dive into developing the proprioceptive and instructive pathways between the conscious brain and the body, with the aim of finding our ‘best’ form for any physical activity. It is slow, still and INTENSE. You will leave with some tools to bring into your own ongoing work… as you start the endless journey of finding your form.

This class gives basic drills and handling exercises for the students to train their fundamental cuts and movement with single, one handed, short sword (think Gladius, Kukri Machete, or Scramasax). We will explore a combination of different martial styles and historical weapons to give a broad base of expressive movement. It can also be used as a base for a daily training routine for those training on your own.

Despite having a reputation for being brutish and simple, medieval longswords have a complexity of movement that can be explored and expanded upon to more efficiently move the sword through space. These shapes can be visualized as force fields, water bending, or physics vectors, depending on the context your imagination prefers! In this class we will explore these movements and create some shapes in our spaces!

A class which actually tells you HOW to act the scene. This class includes suggestions for what you should know about your character, questions to consider about your character and the script, suggestions for how to tell that story physically and vocally, and what parts of the movement you must keep consistent for safety and story. 

Note: Students will be sent short scenes ahead of time, to read and be familiar with before the class begins.

“The weapon is deadly"…I totally agree with that statement….but once you put it down, it becomes nothing. The person holding it, however, has ‘a state of mind’ that we can’t cater for. Join in for an intense but fun real time session.

Whether it goes off in Act III or not, production teams need to treat prop firearms as though they could, and that means safe, responsible, informed, and believable gun handling. We'll briefly touch on the types and uses and limitations of common props types, then go into the basics of safety, grip, stance, protocol, etc. that you'll need whether you're telling your story on stage or on set. 

Whether it's with a partner, a sparing bag or by yourself, fundamentals are key. In this class we will work on a range of kicks and break them down to their finer detail.