This week’s Throwback Thursday is from my trip to New York City with OKTC, in March 2012 (actually one year minus one day ago today!).  After attending my first Art of Combat summer intensive in 2011, I was really eager to get back to swinging a sword in the Big Apple again.  So I arranged with one of the AoC fight directors, Jared Kirby, to have a stage combat workshop for some of the Original Kids during the annual OKTC NYC trip.  It took a bit of planning but it was a great success!  Over 25 OKids and supervisors made the trek to KHDT Studio on Broome Street to learn some longsword techniques.  Here I am with one of the OKids (now a graduate), Sarah, preparing to square off in a scene from Romeo & Juliet (I think?).  I also got to assist Jared with some demonstrations, which was really fun!  It was so great to see some of my AoC friends (Nathan Oesterle, aka “Lumberjack,” was there as Jared’s assistant… didn’t know he would be there, which was a wonderful surprise!) and share something I love with the Original Kids.  And, not going to lie, it’s pretty cool to be able to say, “Oh yeah, I’ll arrange that with my friends from New York!”

After four hours of longsword (two 2-hour workshops!), I got some food with Jared and Lumberjack, and then headed back to the studio to attend Jared’s Friday night combat for stage and screen class!  5 hours of stage combat… it’s like I was back in NYC!  Wait a minute…

After that, I jumped back on the subway and ran across Times Square, just to make it in time to see Nick Jonas in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying!  (After seeing Daniel Radcliffe though, there really wasn’t any comparison… Go D-Rad!)