DESCRIPTION:
In the year 1898,
an English gentleman named Edward William Barton-Wright
created the "New Art of Self Defence" that he called
Bartitsu. His New Art was a combination of street savate,
jiujitsu, scientific boxing and walking stick fighting,
designed to beat the fearsome street gangs of Edwardian
London and fin de siècle Paris at their own
dastardly game.
Bartitsu was the
first martial art to combine Asian and European fighting
styles. It was later incorporated into the Sherlock Holmes
stories, and was used by Holmes to throw his mortal enemy,
Professor Moriarty, to his doom from the top of
Reichenbach waterfall.
This
class provides an intensive, practical grounding in this
fascinating system, as it was taught between 1899-1903 at
the Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture in
London's Shaftesbury Avenue.
Canonical Bartitsu refers to "Bartitsu as we know it was";
the self defence skills and sequences that were
specifically presented as Bartitsu by Barton-Wright and
his associates between 1898-1904. Neo-Bartitsu refers to
the creative, modern application of the art: "Bartitsu as
it can be today".
We will begin with
warm-up exercises taken from the 19th century "physical
culture" repertoire before exploring the underlying
principles and tactics of Bartitsu, via lessons in the
unique combination of fighting styles that made up
Barton-Wright's arsenal of tricks.
This class will
include:
• a selection of the original self
defence sequences represented in Barton-Wright's classic
1902 article series, "Self Defence with a Walking Stick"
• examples of both the canonical and neo-Bartitsu blends
of jiujitsu, scientific boxing, street savate and stick
fighting.
We will also examine some of the combat and hold-up
tactics used by turn-of-the-century gangsters and the
counters developed by self-defence masters of the period.
For further information on Bartitsu, please see http://www.bartitsu.org.
REQUIREMENTS: Participants in this class will need a
sturdy walking stick, cane or dowel of approximately
33-37" length. Fencing masks will be useful.
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