Date/Time
Date(s) - 07/05/2022
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location
Joseph Sargeant Community Centre
Categories
Fight like Julie d’Aubigny: Queer swordplay day
Join us for a fun filled afternoon celebrating the queer history of European sword fighting, by learning the how to fence. This workshop will introduce the basic techniques of rapier and sabre fencing, along with a few handy tactics for duelling, as we explore the history of some of western swordplay’s greatest queer icons.
Queer people have been involved with fencing throughout the history of the practice. For example, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries people like Chevalier d’Eon (https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/06/26/chevalier-deon-transgender-spy-lgbt-history-pride/) and Julie d’Aubigny, aka la Maupin (https://kellygardiner.com/fiction/books/goddess/the-real-life-of-julie-daubigny/), lived genderfluid lives, transitioning between masculine and feminine expression throughout their adventure filled lives.
In the Victorian period, La Maupin in particular became famous, her adventures were novelized into a salacious romance that was illustrated by the queer icon Audrey Beardsley (https://ab2020.org/).
La Maupin was also held up as an example to the new, rapidly growing sport of Women’s fencing, a queer role model for the New Women as they challenged what it meant to be a woman in a patriarchal world.
To continue this proud tradition The Old Sword Club will be running an afternoon of lessons on how to fight with swords. These will include a lesson in Victorian sabre fencing based on the works of Alfred Hutton and Jules Jacob, and individualised lessons in longsword, arming sword and buckler, sidesword, and rapier. Each session will explain the core techniques of the weapon as well as some general advice for duelling, followed by a chance for some freeplay to put what you’ve learned into practice.
This session will also function as an introduction to the practice of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) and the types of the sword fighting regularly practised at The Old Sword Club. If you’ve ever considered taking up historical swordplay this is the perfect place to start.
The Old Sword Club is delighted to continue this tradition of queer swordplay, and would love to invite you to join us on Saturday, 7 May 2022 At 13:00 in the Joseph Sargeant Community Centre at 60 Prospect St, Erskineville NSW to learn a bit about the queer history of swordplay and to learn to swing a sword yourself!
Bookings
Bookings are closed for this event.