Students punch and kick during stage combat workshop

Grand Valley students appeared to be punching, slapping, kicking and choking each other for a full week on the Allendale Campus — at least, that's what they wanted people to believe.

Both theater and non-theater majors alike worked together to create illusions of physical violence during an unarmed stage combat workshop May 2-7. The course was facilitated by Michael Mueller, visiting assistant professor of theater and Society of American Fight Directors certified teacher of stage combat.

The workshop was designed to help students improve skills that are essential when performing safe and dramatically effective techniques of unarmed staged violence. These skills include body and spatial awareness, breath and vocal production, concentration, focus, timing, action and counter-action.

While teaching students staged combat can help advance their future careers, Mueller said the ultimate goal of the workshop was teaching the importance of safety.

"I want to teach students how they can enact moments of violence for the purpose of storytelling, while remaining safe and supportive with their peers," Mueller said. "These skills also enhance students' bodily awareness, camaraderie and sympathetic and empathetic understanding of the violent actions both enacted and received by people in various situations and circumstances."

The workshop concluded with a proficiency test for students, during which they performed a short scene that incorporated unarmed choreography. Upon completion of the workshop, students received certification through the SAFD.

Erin Feiner, a theater major who graduated from Grand Valley in April, said she used this experience as an opportunity to feel more empowered on stage.

"Actors who can fight on stage give the illusion that they are causing serious damage to other people and they seem so powerful," said Feiner, from Hackettstown, New Jersey. "As a woman, I'll take any chance I can get to feel powerful."

A part of that power, according to Feiner, comes from being able to sell a balance of safety and believability on stage.

"Anyone can throw a stage punch that looks safe, but it takes precision and confidence to throw a stage punch where the audience can really feel the pain you have inflicted on your partner," Feiner said.

After completing this workshop, Feiner will now pursue becoming an advanced actor combatant and achieving higher certifications from the SAFD.

"Workshops of this kind on a national level run between $800-$1,000, and are often spread out over the course of a few weeks or months," Mueller said. "This workshop was a fraction of the cost and duration, and provides students the opportunity for recognition and certification through the leading national organization in this particular area of focus."