THE ACADEMY OF THEATRICAL COMBAT
ATC provides action design, fight choreography, violence coordination, sword fighting, and theatrical combat training for all aspects of the entertainment industry.
We specialize in creating action tailored to the needs of any specific project, complete with choreography motivated by the story and characters, on-set coordination of the action, and specialized training for actors in preparation for production.
The ATC Action Coordinators are available for film, TV, Internet, video games, motion capture, or stage combat projects. They can create choreography for all types of weaponry, combat, and violence styles.
In addition to providing project-specific training and action design, the Academy also offers ongoing professional training for actors, stunt performers, and anyone interested in learning about movie fights. Please contact us to discuss your specific needs.
SWORD MASTERS | FIGHT COORDINATORS
Dan Speaker and Jan Bryant (Master and Commander, Hook, Army of Darkness, Hildalgo and more) are among the top experts in fight design, action choreography, and weapons combat for the motion picture industry. With years of experience bringing some of Hollywood’s best fight scenes to life, they can provide action tailored to the needs of any project, complete with choreography fitting the story and characters, on-set coordination of the action, and specialized training for actors in any fighting style, historical, modern, or fantasy necessary for the production.
Dan Speaker
Dan Speaker is one of the top action and sword fight choreographers in film today. He has been fascinated with swords and weaponry all his life. Growing up he studied martial arts, fencing, and horseback riding. He became involved in theatre and began to study how to use combat in performance. While pursuing this he obtained a Diploma in Dramatic Art and a Fencing Coach’s credential from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Working in theatre as an actor and fight choreographer, he met his future wife, dance choreographer turned swordswoman, Jan Bryant. Together they moved to Hollywood and created a new method of teaching and choreographing the art of combat for film.
Jan Bryant
Jan Bryant has always been interested in combat as an art form. She began her career as an actress, dancer and choreographer of dance and movement. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Theatre, she was working as a dance and movement choreographer when she met her future husband, Dan Speaker. They moved to Hollywood and melded their respective talents and training into a new method of teaching and choreographing fight scenes for the motion picture industry.
Today Jan is one of the few female swordmasters in the film industry and continues to teach, choreograph, act and perform the arts of combat and sword fighting.
Jayme Woj
Jayme is an actor, stunt fighter, fight choreographer, and violence coordinator. He currently serves as head instructor and fight designer for ATC New York. With more than 15 years of experience in swordplay, Aikido, Arnis, and theatrical hand-to-hand combat, his work as an action actor and fight designer includes credits on multiple Star Wars and Disney projects, Netflix’s Fuller House, The Globe’s Hamlet, and more.
Kim Turney
Kim loves being a performer/teacher. She has two degrees in acting from The Ohio State University. She has stunt doubled, stunt coordinated, and assistant swordmastered on film projects such as Hallmark’s The Lady Musketeer, A Dead Calling, The Grimm Reaper, USC’s production of Thomasina Sawyer and many more.
