knife workshop

4/1/25 – 6/17/25

Tuesdays | 7PM-10PM

One of the most commonly used weapons in contemporary theatre and film, the knife is ubiquitous in its use. From kitchen table dramas to modern retellings of Shakespeare, from Kill Bill to Eastern Promises to John Wick to Julius Caesar to Rebel Without A Cause; across genre, style, time, and culture, the knife is a frequent and impactful tool of violent stories. Every audience member understands the knife in a way they do not necessarily understand swords because they handle knives in their kitchen or at their work or in other aspects of their lives.

Now you can learn how to portray theatrical knife fights through this Society of American Fight Directors Certification course and offer your audiences fights that they can believe! In this 30+ contact-hour Skills Proficiency Test class, SAFD Certified Teacher Jonathan Ezra Rubin of Fire & Ice Movement Arts will explore both the specificity and visceral grittiness of one of history’s oldest and most common weapons!  

This course will take place on Tuesday nights from 7-10pm from 4/1/25-6/17/25. The course will teach and provide opportunities for students to learn all of the required Knife techniques for the optional Skills Proficiency Test on the final day of the course. During the class, students will learn a piece of choreography for performance that incorporates those Knife techniques, and if they so choose, have it adjudicated by an SAFD Fight Master for certification in Knife.

About the Instructor:

Jonathan Ezra Rubin is a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and freelances as a Fight & Intimacy Director throughout the Washington, DC-Metro Area, currently hosting classes and choreographing under his company, Fire & Ice Movement Arts. He is also a licensed professional wrestler in the State of Maryland. A three-time Helen Hayes Award Nominee for Outstanding Choreography, and a WATCH Award Nominee for Fight Choreography, Jonathan has choreographed most of Flying V’s shows, as well as fights and/or intimacy at The Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Mosaic Theater Company, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Adventure Theatre-MTC, 4615 Theatre Company, Silver Spring Stage, Lumina Studio Theatre, Georgetown University, Goucher College, Anne Arundel Community College, and many more companies throughout the region. He is a proud Associate Member of The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national professional theatrical union.  In addition to stage combat, he has been studying and practicing intimacy direction since 2015, continuing that legacy of work to this day as the Director of Finance & Administration and an Accredited Intimacy Director for the Intimacy Professionals Education Collective (IPEC). Jonathan also has nearly 15 years of executive-level nonprofit arts administration experience and works full-time as the Managing Director of the Theatre Consortium of Silver Spring, serves as the SAFD’s current Treasurer and Development Department Co-Chair, and is an active member of Flying V’s Advisory Board. Jonathan is also the Co-Coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Melee Stage Combat Workshop, and the Fight Director Training Workshop in partnership between Fire & Ice Movement Arts and Pittsburgh’s Eclectic Mayhem. Over the last several years he has been a guest instructor at multiple institutions and organizations around the region, including University of Maryland’s Ghostlight Theatre Company and MD Shakespeare Players, McDaniel College, Annapolis High School, Carroll Community College, Anne Arundel Community College, The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, The Noble Blades, and is a regular educator at Flying V, as well as at dozens of stage combat workshops across the country.