Virtual Paddy Crean 2026

 Instructors

Emilie Guillaume

Belgium

Emilie Guillaume is a Belgian actress, stunt performer, fight choreographer, and combat teacher.
After graduating in acting from IAD (Institut des Arts de Diffusion), she combines acting with physical storytelling. She has developed her expertise through intense practice in martial arts, fencing, acrobatics, and tricking, including two years at the China Circus School in Beijing. She also attended the Paddy Crean Workshops in Canada several times and recently trained twice with the Jackie Chan Stunt Team.

Emilie works across films (La petite reine, Kika), circus( Nofit State), and theater, choreographing and performing in numerous productions such as Jeanne d’Arc, Zorro, Kung-Fu, the Knights Table...  She teaches fight choreography and acrobatics for actors at IAD and keeps up a daily training routine in wushu, wing chun (black belt), fencing, tricking, boxing, silat, and wrestling.

Her work is fueled by a deep passion for movement as a powerful tool for expression and emotion.

Jared Kirby

USA

Jared Kirby has been involved in Combat for Screen & Stage and Western Martial Arts for 25 years. He teaches in New York City (and the metro area) and has choreographed fights Off-Broadway, Nationally, in London and Sydney.

As a Fight Coordinator, Jared has worked with stars such as Peter Sarsgaard, Steve Guttenberg, Cameron Douglas and has trained performers on hit shows.

Jared currently teaches fencing at SUNY Purchase, Sarah Lawrence College, the prestigious Tom Todoroff Conservatory and NY Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. He is a Master of Arms (Maestro d’Armi) through the Martinez Academy of Arms.

Jared is the editor and one of the translators of “Italian Rapier Combat”, the first complete, professional translation of Capo Ferro, the editor for “The School of Fencing” by Domenico Angelo and annotated by Maestro Jeannette Acosta-Martínez as well as “The Gentleman’s Guide to Duelling” released in February 2014 and a reprint of Donald McBane’s “The Expert Swordsman’s Companion” released in January 2017. Most recently, Jared has co-authored “Staging Shakespeare’s Violence” with Seth Duerr and a 2nd edition of “Italian Rapier Combat” in 2021. 

Cristina Ramos

USA

Cha Ramos (she/ella) is a Drama Desk Award winning fight director (Water for Elephants), industry leading intimacy director, dramaturg, playwright, and performer, with an MFA in theatre from Columbia University. She's as likely to be found in Broadway rehearsal rooms, as on Renaissance Faire stages, as in a comfy chair writing or reading a new play. She has shared her thoughts on staged violence and intimacy on local, national, and international panels, in classrooms and workshops, for HowlRound and the New Yorker, and in three different books (The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook, Dramaturgy of Sex on Stage in Contemporary Theatre, & Supporting Staged Intimacy). Her work can currently be seen on Broadway in the hit new musical comedy Death Becomes Her (fight direction) and the beloved fan favorite &Juliet (intimacy direction).

Yarit Dor

United Kingdom

Yarit is the Co-Director of Moving Body Arts, working as a Movement Director/Coach, Fight Director, and IDC-certified Intimacy Director & Coordinator across theatre, dance, opera, television, and film. She is an Associate Artist of Shakespeare’s Globe, a BASSC Stage Combat Teacher, and was awarded a Fellowship by Rose Bruford College in recognition of her contribution to the development of intimacy direction and coordination in the UK entertainment industry. 

Her creative credits span leading companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, and major West End musicals such as Hamilton, Hadestown, A Strange Loop, Fiddler on the Roof, and Why Am I So Single. In dance and opera, she has worked with Rambert, Punchdrunk, English National Opera, and the Royal Opera House.

Yarit also leads Moving Body Arts’s educational activities and teaches at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Shakespeare’s Globe Higher Education, and the National Opera Studio.

www.yarit-dor.com

Da'mon Stith

USA

Da'Mon is the Chief Instructor and at Austin Warrior Arts, Guild of the Silent Sword, and former President of the Historical African Martial Arts Association. His martial arts training began at the age of 6 when his father gave him his first sword. He was fascinated with martial arts and warrior culture. He began his formal training at the age of 9 in Asian martial arts and progressed into African and Middle Eastern martial arts by the age of 17, and over the ensuing decades has deepened his expertise studying arts of the Diaspora. Our courses cover many disciplines including:

Ikiri Ada (Restless Machete) Machete Fencing in the African Diaspora

• Esgrima y Machete y Bordon (Colombian machete)
  
• Tire Machet (Haitian Machete Avril Family
  
• Kokobale (Afro Puerto Rican Stick and Machete
  
• Shotel and Abyssinian Warrior Arts
  
• Takouba Sword of the Sahel
  
• HAMA Fundamentals
  
• Stick and Shield,
  
• Algerian Stick
  
• Long Stick
  
• Nakhtu-aa Fighting Arts of the Nile Valley
  
• 52 Blocks
  
• Capoeira
  
• and more 
  

When not training and instructing, Da'Mon constructs training weaponry utilizing high-density plastic, hardwood, aluminum and steel. Additionally, Da'Mon is an instructor during the summer for Book People's Camp Half-Blood literary camp.

D'Arcy Smith

USA

D’Arcy Smith is the creator of Vocal Combat Technique(tm), a technique to help actors create vocally aggressive sounds in the healthiest way possible. His work in the area has been published in The Journal of Voice. He has helped hundreds of actors to go to vocal extremes including screaming, grunts, growls, etc. Smith was invited by the vocal health team for the US Navy in San Diego to find methods to help drill instructors better use their voices.
 
As a voice, text and dialect coach he has worked on hundreds of professional theatrical productions. He was the resident voice coach at the Guthrie Theater and voice coach for numerous professional acting companies in the US, Canada and New Zealand His teaching credits include workshops nationally as well as in the U.K., Canada, New Zealand and Malaysia. He is a Professor of Acting and Voice at the University of Cincinnati. He teaches classes in Voice-over acting, Acting for the Camera, Acting for Motion Capture, Dialects, Voice for videogames and Vocal Combat: Vocal Extremes for the Actor.

As a videogame voice director and coach he has worked with Riot Games, Digital Extremes, Parallel, Ubisoft, 343 Industries, Ninja Theory and other game developers.
He is training other teachers in the method, promoting innovative training based on research and vocal health best practices.

Siobhan Richardson

Canada

Siobhan certified as a Vocal Combat Technique™ in the first cohort of instructor certifications, in 2023. She was rivetted by the ability to use the voice in such extremes when she first experiences D’Arcy’s method many years ago, and is delighted to be able to add this to her craft as a stage combat performer, director and instructor. 

As a fight director and/or intimacy director, Siobhan has worked with The Canadian Opera Company (where she is the resident Fight and Intimacy Director), The Shaw Festival, the National Arts Centre, The Stratford Festival, Native Earth Performing Arts, Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, Soulpepper, Canadian Musical Theatre Projects, The Grand Theatre (London, ON), Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, Young Peoples’ Theatre, Starvox Entertainment, and The Grand Theatre (London, Ontario) to name a few.

She’s also an actor/fighter/singer/dancer, and an internationally recognized stage combat and intimacyinstructor, having completed 3 European tours including France, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and Finland. She’s an “industry legend” (Aisling Murphy, Intermission Magazine) and a pioneer voice in Intimacy, who has been instrumental in bringing these practices into common use in the industry.

Siobhan sees fight and intimacy direction as a support to joyful creativity, where clear communication and artistic exploration makes space for adventurous exploration. Now with Vocal Combat coaching added to her skillset, she loves exploring how storytelling can be made even more specific with extreme vocal choices.

Casey Kaleba

Washington DC, United States

Pronouns (He/Him)

Casey Kaleba has staged movement, intimacy, and fights for nearly six hundred productions in theatre, musical theatre, opera, and media.  A Certified Teacher and Fight Director with the Society of American Fight Directors, Casey has staged fights for knights, musketeers, princesses, zombies, wolves, pirates, ninjas, and at least one alien tentacle. He has worked throughout the United States, and has been a guest instructor for both Fight Directors Canada and the Nordic Stage Fight Society.  He served as an audition choreographer for Marvel Universe Live, smashed fruit on the YouTube show Men At Arms: Reforged, and this workshop will mark thirty years of association with the Paddy Crean workshop.  In his spare time Casey holds a PhD in Theatre History and lectures on both film and theatre

Zev Steinrock

USA

Zev Steinrock is a fight director, intimacy director, teacher, and performer, currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Acting at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds certifications from the Society of American Fight Directors, and Intimacy Directors & Coordinators, and is a recipient of the Paddy Crean Award and Darrel Rushton Teaching Award for his contributions to the field of stage combat. Zev has been invited to present his research into trauma-informed choreography practices most recently to the SAFD College of Fight Masters, and at the National Stage Combat Workshop.  National Fight and Intimacy Direction credits include South Coast Repertory Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, The Williamston Theatre, and Definition Theatre Company. 

Jonathan Ezra Rubin

USA

Jonathan Ezra Rubin is a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and Certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Professionals Education Collective (IPEC). He freelances as a Fight & Intimacy Director throughout the Washington, DC-Metro Area, currently hosting classes and choreographing under his company, Fire & Ice Movement Arts. A four-time Award Nominee for Outstanding Choreography, Jonathan is an Associate Member of SDC, the national directors/choreographers union, and is a licensed professional wrestler in the State of Maryland. Jonathan has nearly 15 years of experience as an executive-level nonprofit arts administrator and works full-time as the Managing Director for the Theatre Consortium of Silver Spring, as well as serving as the SAFD’s Treasurer and Development Department Co-Chair, and as IPEC’s Director of Finance & Administration. Jonathan is also the Co-Coordinator of both the Fight Director Training Workshop, and the Mid-Atlantic Melee, which are both held annually in Maryland.

D Granke

USA

D is a New England based Director, Fight Director, Intimacy Director, and Movement Specialist.

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Selected Fight Direction credits include: The Black Suits (Joe's Pub), Born Yesterday, Morning After Grace, and The Little Foxes (Asolo Repertory Theatre), FLY and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Florida Studio Theatre), The Piano Lesson, The Mountain Top, and Dearly Departed (Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe), Vietgone, The Invisible Hand and Bad Jews (American Stage), The Niceties, Dry Land, Dike, and Pilgrims (Urbanite), Moriarty (freeFall), Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Richard the III (Tampa Shakes), The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety and In the Blood (Stageworks), As You Like It, A Skull In Conemarra, and Gloucester Blue (Jobsite Theatre), Don Giovanni, Faust, Il Trovatore, Carmen, Tales of Hoffman, and La Boheme (St Petersburg Opera), Once Upon a Bride There was a Forest (True North) Voodoo Macbeth and Take Me Out (Studio 620), A View from the Bridge (Tampa Rep), Appropriate (Three Bone Theatre) and Unto these Hills and Time of War (Cherokee Historical Association)

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Intimacy Direction Credits include: The Cake and In the Next Room (Studio at Tierra Del Sol) Carmen (Opera Orlando) Vietgone (American Stage), Sender, At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, and Pilgrims (Urbanite Theatre), Ruby (Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe), Silent Sky (True North), Inside Man (Schoolhouse Arts at Sebago Lake), and Stupid F!@#ing Bird (Tampa Rep)

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They hold a BFA from the University of Michigan, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. They currently teach Acting, Directing, Voice, and Movement at the University of Maine, and previously served on faculty at the University of South Florida. They are certified as a teacher and fight director by the SAFD. They were certified in intimacy with Intimacy Directors International and were one of their lead instructors.

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Samantha Kauffman

USA



Samantha Kaufman (she/her) is an intimacy director, fight director, and teaching artist. She is based in Chicago and works internationally. Samantha is a Certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. A Certified Teacher, Fight Director, and Theatrical Firearms Safety Instructor with the Society of American Fight Directors. A Jeff Award-nominated fight choreographer. An award-winning actor. An award-winning indie stunt coordinator. A certified Michael Chekhov teacher with the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. Regionally, Samantha has worked with theatres such as Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Prague Shakespeare Company, among others. She was among the first wave of intimacy professionals certified by Intimacy Directors International in 2018. She has taught intimacy workshops at over 50 universities across the United States. SamanthaJKaufman.com

Lyndall Grant

Australia

Lyndall (she/her) is a Fight Director, Movement Director and performer for Stage, Screen and Performance Capture (Motion Capture), with a career spanning 20 years in Australia and Internationally. For 15 years she has worked extensively as a fight director in the U.K., North America, Scandinavia and Continental Europe, for companies such as Disney Australia, the Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, West Australian Opera, Opera Australia, Queensland Theatre Company, GWB Entertainment and the Rose Theatre Kingston (U.K.).

Lyndall is a senior instructor with the Society of Australia Fight Directors inc. (SAFDi) and certified teacher with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat (BADC). Alongside Captivate workshops she regularly teaches at the Victorian College of the Arts (The University of Melbourne), the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, 16th St. Actors Studio and the National Theatre Drama School. Lyndall was one of the first practitioners worldwide to develop specialist training for Performance Capture and Motion Capture performance, with Captivate Action being the first to offer Motion Capture workshops.

Lyndall trained as an actor at London’s ArtsEd School of Acting, before specialising in fight and movement performance. As such her methodology in direction and teaching action is story-lead, and she works closely with directors and actors to create dynamic and character-driven scenes.

Kev McCurdy

United Kingdom



Kev is an Equity Registered Fight Director. He is also the Fight Instructor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as well as the Co-Founder, a Fight Examiner and Senior Stage Combat Tutor of the Academy of Performance Combat (APC). He works in a wide range of disciplines across film, television, and theatre.

Film includes: The Lady of Heaven; Season Of The Witch; John Carter Of Mars; Journey’s End; Kenya; Canaries; Carmilla.

Television includes: Eastenders; The A List; Hetty Feather; Hollyoaks; Pobol Y Cwm; Keeping Faith; Craith/Hidden; 4Stories; The Story of Tracy Beaker. Y Golau

Selected Theatre credits include: Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre & UK Tour); Miss Saigon (Prince Edward, UK and European tour); O Island, Ivy Tiller: Squirrel Killer, The Tempest (RSC); Frankenstein, Hamlet, Let The Right One In (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Anthony & Cleopatra, Mosquitoes, Barbershop Chronicles, Othello (National Theatre); Eyam, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Taming Of The Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe); Billy Elliot (Curve); Glory (The Dukes, Lancaster & UK tour); The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (UK Tour); Sylvia, Jitney (Old Vic); Hamlet, The House of Shades (Almeida); Fairview, Mandela (Young Vic); The Wife of Willesden (Kiln); Bajazet (Irish National Opera Tour & Royal Opera House); Moreno (Theatre 503); Guardians Of The Galaxy (Secret Cinema); Red Pitch (The Bush Theatre); Marys Seacole, Trouble In Butetown (Donmar Warehouse); Sister Act (UK tour & Eventim Apollo); The Colour Purple (UK tour)