Get to the Point! Stage Sword Fighting Workshop
DATE: May 1–2, 2026
Workshop Details
Come and learn all about sword fighting for the stage! This class is all about foundations, perfect if you have never held a sword before or are looking to work your fundamentals. We will cover the basics of sword including footwork, parries, and attacks while introducing the safeties and techniques that are used to keep a fight flashy, fast and safe. Over two days, you’ll bring it all together by learning a dynamic piece of sword choreography.
Your instructors: Nathania Bernabe and Jackie T. Hanlin are award-winning Canadian fight choreographers and co-founders of Affair of Honour. They brought last year’s Fundy Fringe fan-favourite Multi-Vs to the festival and bring their expertise and energy to this workshop.
If you are interested in participating, please email a short letter of interest to our Outreach Coordinator, Jesse McRae, at jesse.mcrae@saintjohntheatrecompany.com
Participant Information
Nathania is a Filipino-Canadian actor, choreographer, director, writer and producer with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Education(Concordia University of Alberta). She is grateful for the incredible opportunities to train with such Schools and Companies like the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art(London), SITI Company(New York), Zen Zen Zo (Melbourne), Diavolo Dance (Los Angeles), Rapier Wit (Toronto), DynamO Théâtre (Montreal) and Second City (Chicago). Nathania has a profound love for physical theatre and is a certified instructor with Fight Directors Canada. Nathania is the Artistic Director of Affair of Honour, an award winning stage combat company she co-founded with Jackie T. Hanlin producing productions like Jovanni Sy’s The Five Vengeances and
Qui Nguyen’s Soul Samurai. Nathania and Jackie have also written new works titled Playthings and Multi-Vs, and their adaptation of The Musketeers into the Affair of Honour canon, an ever expanding repertoire of fight plays. Up next, they are creating their 10 year anniversary show titled V City. www.affairofhonor.ca
Jackie T. Hanlin is an actor, fight choreographer and producer hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She received her BA in Drama from Bishops University in 2015, and moved to Vancouver where she began her stage combat studies and work with her fight/producing partner Nathania Bernabe, co-founding Affair of Honour. Jackie is a certified instructor with The Academy of Fight Directors Canada. Since 2015 she has had the pleasure of being an actor, choreographer, writer and producer within Affair of Honour, producing Qui Nguyen’s Soul Samurai (Vancouver Fringe festival 2017/18) in which the fight and movement design received a Jessie Nomination in 2018, Karen Basset’s Heroine (Edmonton Fringe Festival 2018), House of Arms: an improvised fight episodic (2018), Playthings (Edmonton Fringe Festival 2019/Presentation House Theatre 2021), Fairlith Harvey’s Kill The Ripper (Presentation House Theatre/Rio Theatre 2022) Jovanni Sy’s The Five Vengeances (Shadbolt Centre for the Arts 2022) and Multi-Vs (Edmonton/Halifax/Lennoxville/Vancouver 2023/2024/2025/2026)