Workshop Instructors

Jared Kirby has been involved in Western Martial Arts and Combat for Stage & Screen for over fifteen years. He has trained across the US and Europe with some of the finest instructors in this Art. As a stage combat artist he has worked with several organizations and taken certification tests with the BADC and SAFD. Ultimately, Jared found his home with the Art of Combat which merged his passion for historical fencing with his love of combat for stage and screen.

He is currently the fencing instructor at SUNY Purchase and also teaches and trains at the Martinez Academy of Arms in New York City. He teaches a variety of workshops across the US and around the world including Canada, England, Scotland, Finland and Italy. He has taught at the Paddy Crean International Art of the Sword Workshop, the International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention (ISMAC), Rapier Camp and the Western Washington WMA Workshop just to name a few.

Jared is the editor and one of the translators of “Italian Rapier Combat”, the first complete, professional translation of Capo Ferro. He is also the editor and wrote the introduction for “The School of Fencing” by Domenico Angelo and annotated by Maestro Jeannette Acosta-Martínez. For more information, see Martinez Academy of Arms or Amazon.com.

He is the co-coordinator of the International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention in Detroit, MI. This workshop, created in 2000, brings together the finest instructors from around the world for one of the largest annual Western Martial Arts workshops. Jared is also a member of the Association for Historical Fencing.

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John "Doc" Lennox has trained in various forms of swordplay for over 25 years. Beginning with the katana, he later moved into the western weapon styles. Through his involvement in stage combat for theatre over the past 24 years he began to study a myriad of weapons. He is a Fight Director for Art of Combat, teaches stage combat at Lansing Community College, Jackson Community College and Wayne State University, and is the in-house fight director for both of these institutions as well as Spring Arbor University.  

In October of 1999 he began his studies in historical fencing. Working with such instructors as Maestro Ramon Martinez, Maestro Jeannette Acosta Martinez, Maestro Paul Macdonald, Dwight McLemore and Stefan Dieke, he decided to utilize Art of Combat to bridge the gap between stage combat and historically accurate combat. He brought this philosophy to the members of Art of Combat, and AoC now holds as their mission to choreograph works that are exciting to watch, safe to perform, and as true as possible to the historical style represented. 

John has choreographed over 100 productions and several films. Most recently he worked as the stunt coordinator and lead actor for the film "Dog".
   
He is an instructor with the Historical Maritime Combat Association, specializing in Single vs. Double Weapons, Naval Smallsword and combat against multiple opponents. He is also an instructor with the Historical Martial Study Society, and an Expert level knife instructor with the School of Two Swords.

He is also working on a book on boarding tactics from the 17th through 19th centuries entitled By Sword and Tomahawk with Gareth Thomas and Steve Huff.

John travels throughout the world teaching at some of the most prestigious workshops in stage and historical combat. He is also regularly called in to teach workshops and choreograph productions at colleges and universities throughout the United States. He holds a PhD in Theatre with cognate studies in historical fencing from Wayne State University.