Martial arts group thrills Charlottetown audiences
ISABELLE GALLANT The Guardian
A member of the extreme martial arts group Ryouko performs on the Charlottetown waterfront on Canada Day. Guardian photo by Brian McInnis
The performance group Ryouko isn’t your typical busker act, even though they drew crowds on the Charlottetown waterfront during the Festival of Lights.
Based in Toronto, this extreme martial arts group is a 30-person company of performers, many of whom work as stunt actors in television and film.
Chris Mark, one of the five members of Ryouko who travelled to Charlottetown for the holiday weekend, is in the film The Love Guru, now playing in theatres.
Other members are in Jumper and The Mummy III.
Ryouko doesn’t busk very often, said Mark, and the only other festival they’ve played is the Buskers Festival in Halifax.
“But we wanted to get out to P.E.I. just to show our presence here,” he said.
Their performances look like a mix of movie-style stunt fighting, synchronized martial arts moves, and flips and jumps.
“It’s a hybrid of several different types of traditional martial arts, like karate, taekwondo, wushu, basics and we’ll add in the acrobatics and gymnastics as well as the flair of break-dancing, to give it a more performance-oriented feel,” said Mark.
The performers all come from different backgrounds, which makes the troupe more diverse, he said.
“Some of us are good at weapons, some of us are better at fight choreography, some of us were gymnasts, so their tumbling’s better, but we like to train our performers to be well-rounded, to be able to do everything, so that we can do a lot of group synchronization,” said Mark.
Besides their TV and film work, members of Ryouko are often hired for corporate performances.
They also started a teaching program, after noticing that a lot of kids wanted to learn to do what they were doing.
And last year, they performed in high schools, spreading a message about alternatives to drugs and alcohol.
“We thought it would be effective to inspire (students) by showing them on stage, this is what you can accomplish if you get into progressive fitness programs.”
Ryouko really enjoyed being in Charlottetown, said Mark.
“The first day, we came in and it was raining, and then our shows were rained out. But once the sun came out and the people came out, it’s a really, really nice town.”
Members of the audience at one of Ryouko’s shows on Canada Day seemed impressed by what they saw.
“They were incredible,” said Mary Acorn. “The fact that they’re able to do this on the hard concrete.”
Suna Houghton said she’d only seen moves like these in movies.
“It brought it to life so much. The athletic side of it is so amazing.”
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D from Japan writes: Sounds cool. Sorry I missed it!
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Dan from CHT, PEI writes: Was a great show but could have done without the humour on Asian stereotypes.
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