Short version: We can make it happen.  We will tell the story. 

 

I often find that directors have a vision for their fights, but lack the knowledge about how to pull it off effectively while keeping their actors safe.  It is my goal to be able to offer the answer to the director's problem, and to add my ideas whenever I feel they can benefit the story that leads up to, carries through, and continues after the fight.  When given free reign, I frequently have visions of something I would really like to see, and go about seeing if it is physically possible, or how to get that feeling into action.  The interesting part is finding out that almost anything is possible, that if we can think it, we can achieve it somehow (for example in "Midsummer," I wanted to see Hermia charge at Helena only to have her path blocked by Demetrius and Lysander and have her run straight up them and hang in the air before crashing back down away from her goal.  It worked beautifully and safely every time.  I had no idea if it was possible at first to make someone virtually float and crash back down onto concrete, but we figured it out).  Above all, though, my first priority is to keep everyone safe.  I will never have anyone perform any action they do not feel comfortable performing.  Rather, I will find a way to achieve the desired effect with a move the actor is comfortable with.  Ultimately, fights are there to serve the story.  As a choreographer, or Fight Director, it is my job to keep the actors' characters engaged in achieving their goals using the tactics they would use in the given circumstances of physical conflict.