Today I had a fencing lesson with Szilvi Naray-Davey, a colleague in the English department at Salford who has been fencing competitively most of her life, as well as being an actor, director, playwright and translator! My maternal grandfather used to fence and I took a single fencing lesson about ten years ago, but recently found some of the movement material returning to me in making phrases in the studio, and wanted to revisit it. I find fencing such a fascinating and elegant sport with a very strong aesthetic sensibility and it was great to revisit some of the basics in this short session – the en-garde, advancing, retreating, lunging and parrying (more French terms to follow!). Thank you Szilvi for being such an inspiring (and demanding!) teacher!
Image shows Szilvi and co-star Phil Briggs in Fencing for Losers – a play which Szilvi co-wrote, and produced well as performing in!
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