Cecil Longino. Photo courtesy of Academia della Spada.
The International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention
Biography Page for

Cecil Longino
Academia della Spada



Cecil's formal martial arts training began with his study of Tae Kwon Do from Grand Master Kyu Il Cho in 1983. It was this strict training and formal environment that would inform his judgment to seek out quality instruction in all his future endeavors. In subsequent years, Cecil continued his exploration of Eastern martial arts; however, while living in Germany, he became captivated with the notion of European historical fencing. In 1994, from the University of North Florida, he received his Bachelor of Arts in Drama with a focus on Elizabethan stagecraft. Founder of the Elizabethan reenactment troupe, Blood, Love & Rhetoric, Cecil has spent many years examining various aspects of Elizabethan society and culture: literature, philosophy, dance and fence.
 
He founded the Academia della Spada in 1998 to focus on reconstructing the rapier play of Vincentio Saviolo, a well known Italian fencing master teaching in London at the end of the 16th Century. In 2003 Cecil felt compelled to seriously pursue formal training under Maestro Ramon Martinez and Maestro Jeannette Acosta-Martinez. He is currently a Certified Instructor in French foil and French smallsword with the Martinez Academy of Arms in New York and is also an active board member of the Association for Historical Fencing, an organization dedicated to preserving the arts of classical and historical fencing.

In his teaching he strives to connect the art of fencing back to the greater historical mindset from which it was developed, because it is crucial to keep in mind that every martial art is a child of the specific culture that gave it birth, and therefore should adhere to a particular ideal esthetic in its form, movement, and manner inherited from its parent culture.