Classes

I will be teaching classes when I return to the Chicagoland area this summer. Times and venues are currently TBD. Contact me for further questions or if you would like one of the following classes to be offered at your organization.

 

Qigong for Actors

A class on energy work, relaxation techniques, and physical acting combining meditation, the Chinese martial arts of Qigong and Meihua Quan with acting techniques revolving around energy. Learn to build and harness your inner power for physical/mental wellbeing and character building.

 

Black Widow Martial Dancer Workshop

Inspired by Black Widow’s ballerina assassin backstory, this high intensity class combines dance, acrobatics, and martial arts. We will be exploring the similarities between the two, and building skills in both performance and self-defense.

 

Hunger Games Tribute Training

Has regular strength and cardio training become too boring? Hoping to build your skills for the seemingly inevitable revolution and/or zombie apocalypse? Join us for this high intensity, applied training game. Presented in a dramatic style, you will be led through traditional strength, agility, and speed-building exercises through a new and more exciting lens, as well as learning some martial drills both unarmed and with a knife, or other weapon of choice, and doing light sparring drills to improve speed, perception, and reaction time.

 

Amazon Warrior Training

Wanting to train like a Thymesciran Warrior? Not wanting to do endless traditional weights exercises and treadmill runs? This class combines martial training with agility, power, and cardio through a lens of warrior training, using exercises that will not only build strength, but also be useful for martial technique. The class content will be based on my training at a Kung Fu Academy in rural China, my stage combat training, and my historical research.

 

Kung Fu Style Stage Combat

This class will help to specify what Kung Fu Style really means in the context of Theatrical Martial Arts by learning a variety of Chinese Martial Arts forms, various Chinese weapons (Butterfly Swords, Glaive, Fan, Whip), comparing and differentiating these from other martial arts (Karate, Muay Thai, Aikido, HEMA), and creating choreography.

 

Internal Martial Arts & Spirituality: Tai Chi, Qigong, Meditation, Meihua Quan, and Chakras

This class is intended for relaxation, spiritual connection, (and magick). Tai Chi, Qigong, and Meihua Quan are internal Chinese martial arts that help to build and control the Chi—your internal power, by whatever name you choose to call it. These are also used for healing and building strength. The meditations and chakra balancing in this class will also be geared towards healing and building internal power and confidence.

 

Hard Qigong

Hard Qigong sounds a bit crazy when explained bluntly, and I was terrified going into my first class of it. I soon found it to be fun and rewarding more than anything. Hard Qigong is part body conditioning and part courage conditioning. It is a martial art that focuses on directing Chi to certain areas of the body through Iron Body Conditioning. This includes hitting sand bags and poles with various body parts, hitting yourself with wooden blocks or bricks, and gradually moving into what would seem like physically impossible feats without the use of illusions.

 

Falling with Style: Falling and Rolling

Perhaps most useful to actors, dancers, circus folk, martial artists, and parkour athletes, I would argue that anyone could benefit from learning how to fall safely. I know this skill has saved my clumsy self many a time. This class will go through both basic falls and rolls as well as more advanced, acrobatic ones. The tumbling involved will be a combination of stage combat, Kung Fu, Aikido, Karate, and circus.

 

Kung Fu Ballet

This class is on a movement style I have invented and am in the process of developing further that combines three of my most beloved movement styles: Chinese Martial Arts, Western Medieval/Renaissance Weapons, and Ballet. This class will be tailored to the level of the class, and focus on kicks, jumps, turns, rolls, and forms/choreography combining these movement styles, as well as incorporating Kung Fu Weapons, Ballet Weapons (Rapier & Companion, Smallsword), and Weapons with a combination of both styles. It is also a callback to historical fencing training, where the students would learn both dance and fencing to become better at both.