Anyone who has ever watched STAR WARS has fantasized about when, not if, science develops an actual lightsaber but until then we rely on prop replicas and cheap toys from Wal-Mart. The next step is learning how to use one. A San Francisco “Star Wars” fan has created a combat choreography class for the Jedi and Sith weapon. The class is the brainchild of Alain Bloch, a 32-year-old software engineer with a lifelong love of George Lucas’ epic space opera.
There are a lot of really awesome costuming groups in the Bay Area, but there was no one that was doing reenactments of the light saber battles that you find in movies, which I find to be some of the most exciting parts of them,... So I went around and was actually looking for somebody who could possibly teach me how to do this sort of choreography.
Matthew Carauddo, a fencing instructor and martial artist who works on stage choreography and teaches fencing in the Los Altos area, south of San Francisco. Carauddo was also a self-professed Star Wars geek and taught kids light saber choreography to supplement fencing, Bloch said. He trained Bloch, and then the pair founded Golden Gate Knights to bring more padawans into the Jedi order.
We have people who have their own light sabers and really want to learn how to use them and look cool flourishing them around... we have people who are into film who want to learn how to do some choreography for their film projects. And we have just a lot of people who are interested in fun weekend activities who want to come out and do something interesting. We have a lot of people are into ‘Star Wars,’ or at least curious about ‘Star Wars.’ And we have a lot of people come out on fun dates.
The class has grown to the point that it’s self-sustaining, but he’s not going to be quitting his day job anytime soon. “It’s just something I do on the side,” he said. “Only on the weekends I get to don my Jedi robes and feel the Force.”
This is one of the coolest things ever!
I am guessing this is the only place the Jedi and Sith can coexist.
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