can be impossible to distinguish in some cases where a martial art ends and
a performing art begins, as with the randai and silekof the Minangkabau
of Sumatra, or Brazilian capoeira.In both these cases, so integral have the
martial art and performance elements become to each other that training
takes place through performance, and performance through the martial
arts training.
In many other cases martial arts techniques have been subsumed
within, and gradually transformed into, virtuosic training and/or perfor-
mance systems. One of the most obvious historical connections is that be-
tween the traditional Chinese theater (Beijing Opera), which evolved its wu-
kung (literally, martial effort) techniques employing both hand-to-hand
fighting and manipulation of halberds, lances, and swords. Seen today in the
spectacular acrobatic feats and mass stylized combat displays of the Beijing
stage, the process of transformation through which wu-kung stage combat
and choreography developed is as yet unexplored and undocumented, if not
lost in the maze of individual schools of Chinese martial traditions.
Similarly, the popular Kabuki theater of Japan developed its Tachi-
mawarior stylized fight-scene techniques associated with portrayal of
samurai. In Kabuki the tateshi(fight specialist) was the acting company’s
stage-fight specialist, responsible for combining various acrobatic moves,
mieposes used for highly emotional dramatic effect, and specific fighting
techniques brought from the martial arts into Kabuki’s exciting, fast-paced
battle scenes. Even the more reserved and restrained Nô drama of Japan,
the predecessor of Kabuki, was influenced by the martial arts and ways.
For example, the Kita Nohtradition (one of the five main schools of act-
ing) was born from the samurai class. Some of today’s contemporary Kita
school actors compare the concentration and mental state of the Nô per-
former to those of the martial artist. In some plays, such as the demon play,
Funa Benkei,the staging of the demon’s attack is taken from the use of
sword and halberd (naginata).
A third example of the close relationship between martial arts and
performance is that found in India. As early as the writing of the encyclo-
pedia of dramaturgy, Natyasastra(between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200), the link
between martial techniques, performer training, and stage combat had
been made. The performer is enjoined to prepared himself for the stage by
taking “exercise on the floor as well as high up in the air, and should have
beforehand one’s body massaged with the [sesame] oil or with barley gruel.
The floor is the proper place [literally, “mother”] for exercise. Hence one
should resort to the floor, and stretching oneself over it one should take ex-
ercise” (Ghosh 1956). The neophyte receives instructions to follow dietary
restrictions as part of the training. The text also records the types of
movement to be used for onstage “release of weapons” and use of sword420 Performing Arts