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As members of the nonprofit Saber Guild, Addie and Ben Ruth share a love of lightsabers, Jedi robes, and lightsaber choreography.
The full transcript of this episode of KUT News Now is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
This Is My Thing: Lightsaber Choreography!
Show intro and theme
Michael Lee [00:00:13] I’m Michael Lee and you’re listening to This Is My Thing. On This Is My Thing, we talk to people about the things they do just for themselves. It’s not their job and it’s not a responsibility. It’s just a thing that brings them joy or feeds their soul. This week, lightsaber choreography!
This piece comes to us from my friend Juan Garcia.
Juan Garcia [00:00:30] So as you know, Mike, I am a huge Star Wars nerd. And so when we were putting together this project, one of the first things that I wanted to find was some way of incorporating light sabers, because one of my things is I love lightsabers. I ended up finding a local chapter of the organization Saber Guild. They have these guilds, these groups all across the country that come together and put together elaborate costumes. They put together choreographed light saber fights, and they perform these at conventions, charity events, hospitals, basically anywhere where there’s a kid that might be interested in Star Wars or maybe an adult who’s a bit of a nerd and wants to get a photo op with a Jedi, they will be there in some very elaborate costumes that they’ve put together to some pretty exacting standards, performing some really elaborate light saber choreography to help kids find the joys of protecting the galaxy with a laser sword.
Michael Lee [00:01:33] And who did you talk to?
Juan Garcia [00:01:34] I talked to Addie and Ben Ruth. They’re a married couple that are both involved in global leadership for Saber Guild, as well as helping run the local chapter of the Guild in Austin.
Michael Lee [00:01:47] And in this piece, we’re going to hear you learning a little bit of choreography, is that right?
Juan Garcia [00:01:50] Yeah. They taught me the whole nine point system on the body. They taught me some basic fights.
Michael Lee [00:01:57] All right. Let’s take a listen.
Addie teaching some padawans [00:02:00] That means that we are ready for the show to begin. Everybody excited?
Addie Ruth [00:02:07] I am Addie. I am Saber Guild’s global PR director, and my thing is lightsaber choreography and the performance aspects of Star Wars.
Ben Ruth [00:02:23] My name is Ben. I’m the local costume councilor for the Austin area. My job is making sure everybody looks great while they’re doing light saber choreography for Star Wars and joining in and doing it as well.
Juan Garcia [00:02:35] What sparked the interest in exploring light saber choreography and just kind of Star Wars in general? What was that kind of introductory point into this magical world that we’re all into?
Addie Ruth [00:02:46] Okay. So interestingly enough, when I first encountered Saber Guild, it was at a local event here in Austin, South by Southwest, you know, just a small event like that. And they were actually not performing hilariously enough. It was just a photo opportunity with everybody. But because the community was so welcoming with just anybody who walked by, you know, inviting them in and saying, hey, take a photo with us. And the costumes looked great, of course. And just seeing that spark and the joy of it made me actually want to talk to the people at the booth. And then I found out that, it’s not just the photo opportunity that they were doing that they actually do light saber choreography and normally that there would be performances. And I was like, Well, what does that look like? It’s like, well, it’s, you know, stage combat, right? It’s all scripted, choreographed. But they really get to interact with kids and it’s all for charity. And it just sounded like a really fun way to give back to the community.
Speaker 4 [00:03:48] All right. Compared to what? Where do you go after school? Yeah. Awesome. Do you feel safe at home? Yeah. Awesome. So what we’re going to do today is we’re going to build ourselves what we call a house of safety, right? Because we feel really, really safe when we’re at home. So we’re going to do this back and forth that I sense.
Addie Ruth [00:04:08] And that’s when I approach my husband and was like, Hey, you know, this sounds like a really fun thing to do on the weekends because honestly, we were kind of bored at the time. We were new to the area still a little bit, and we hadn’t really, you know, found a whole lot of friends other than work, friends, things like that.
Ben Ruth [00:04:25] So she excitedly tells me, you know, Hey, I just found this, and I think it’s something you’d be interested in, interested in doing. And I was like, That’s odd, because probably about two years ago I saw someone in our neighborhood Facebook group make a post about, you know, Hey, do you want to come swing light saber? And so I was like, you know, it’s funny because I’d seen that it seemed interested, but I didn’t think you’d care about. And she’s like, Well, that’s that’s kind of interesting because the people that I just met live in our neighborhood and I was like, okay, this is odd because I did try to go back and find that post, but I didn’t remember the person’s name, so I couldn’t find it. And so I’m like, Do you remember their name? And she gave it to me. I type it in on search. And then there’s that post from two years before where they had been just locally in the neighborhood looking for people. And I was like, you know, the whole reason I didn’t bring it up is I didn’t think you would be interested in it. And now she’s coming to me with it. So it’s like, yeah, you know, let’s go to practice, check this out and, you know, see what it’s all about. And now here we are four years later with her and global leadership and me and local leadership unit.
Speaker 4 [00:05:23] Just kind.
Unidentified [00:05:25] I’m not afraid of you. You that.
Juan Garcia [00:05:33] Before you guys found Saber Guild, were you guys already into Star Wars or was this kind of your introduction to it?
Ben Ruth [00:05:39] I definitely was. She liked it. It’s not a but she was not into it anywhere near as much as I was. I’ve literally been thrown out of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit game before because people weren’t being able to take turns because I was winning on my first turn. So, you know, I did the whole camping out in front of a theater for tickets to Phantom Menace, you know, back in the late 90s. I would just read the Star Wars Encyclopedia for fun. So I was a pretty big Star Wars nerd, and that was a big part of my childhood that I’ve been able to get in touch with again.
Addie Ruth [00:06:17] And on my side, I have to fully admit that I grew up a Star Trek nerd, but that’s okay. Star Wars took me a little bit longer to get into my first inner interaction with. It really was just seeing the VHS box set, you know? And I was really bored one summer and was like, You know what? Let’s put these in. Let’s see, you know, what it’s like. And then I watched the first one full episode four. Then I watched episode five and episode six, and I was like, I need to see these again. And I swear I almost wore out those tapes just constantly rewatching them the entire summer. It was a blast. And, you know, ever since then, yeah, it’s just kind of grown from there.
Juan Garcia [00:07:03] And once you guys got into the Saber Guild, which is, of course, like, you know, like you were in charge of making sure everybody looks good and there’s this costuming aspect of it. What are some of your inspirations when coming up with choreographies or costumes and kind of what inspires you guys to to do what it is that you guys do?
Ben Ruth [00:07:26] Inspiration can come from anywhere. The fight that we just recently made for Star Wars celebration this year actually is the very first fight from The Witcher on episode one, and we just took that fight and adapted their choreography to lightsabers, which requires modification, you know. But I we’ve had members who will sit down and watch the episode three fight between Obi-Wan and and again, and we’ll literally mimic that fight. Stroke by stroke hit by hit anime. You know, anywhere where you have any kind of swordplay, you can take that and adapt it to a fight that fits what you want to do.
Addie Ruth [00:08:05] And I think that’s the really interesting part about Saber Guild as a whole is that we’re all influenced by different things. And in our case, we’ve adapted so many different things. We’ve got people who are adapting, mean adapting, different animated things from like Clone Wars, things like that. And, you know, our base system here that we use in Texas is a simple nine count system. A lot of people are like, are you using a particular style or anything like that? And we tell them honestly, no. All we do is train you in nine basic points on the body and then you can develop your own flair as your own character, if you will, from there with all too easy.
Addie teaches Juan some lightsaber moves:
Juan Garcia [00:08:56] All too easy. Eight, seven, eight. Three, four. Yes. Yes.
Addie Ruth [00:09:01] You remembered.
Speaker 4 [00:09:02] Yes.
Juan Garcia [00:09:03] I didn’t know if I was going to do so. All right. Eight, seven, eight.
Addie Ruth [00:09:09] Three, four. Start with the eight.
Juan Garcia [00:09:12] Eight.
Speaker 4 [00:09:13] Yep. Seven, seven, eight, three, three, four. All right, now I’m going to actually come back. There it is. All right. One, two, three. You’re going to get back into your ready stance, and I’m going to attack. And you’re going to focus. Okay? Ready? Yes. Eight, eight, seven, eight. Three, four.
Addie Ruth [00:09:37] Excellent. So then you see where, like in my choreography, I tend to like doing spins and twirls and things like that, because about 20 years ago, when I was a kid, I did ballet and that was my incorporation of it. Some of our members were fencers, so they have that kind of a style whenever they’re fighting.
Ben Ruth [00:10:00] You know, some people, all they have is they’re really big and tall, so you’re just that menacing presence when you step out. And, you know, part of that is generally, if you think about from any kind of like fantasy show, the larger brute or more British type person, they tend to be slower, they aren’t as quick, they don’t spend as much, but they’re more about that, that, you know, scary presence just standing there. And you know, that’s you know, as Ali said, that’s what I love about this is you can take whatever your strengths are and find a way to work that into what you’re doing. And then. You know, if there’s something that you may not be strong in, but you want to learn it, there’s other people there who are strong in it. So we can help each other learn new ways to do things that may not have been something we came into this knowing how to do.
Juan Garcia [00:10:45] And you mentioned kind of developing your own character style. What are some of your character inspirations for your combat sequences that you guys come up with?
Addie Ruth [00:10:54] So for me, like I said, since I like a lot of movement and flow and things like that, one of my biggest inspirations was actually out of Firefly and the way River fights whenever, especially in the scenes like you see Out of Serenity in the movie, because she actually is the actress, is also a ballet dancer. And so you kind of see that in the way that she incorporates, especially when she does a dual wield axes at the very end there. And I’ve been like, okay, at some point I want to get to a point where I can use some of those moves in a fight as well. And sometimes it’s not like an entire fight, like we were talking about adapting a whole witch or fight. Sometimes it’s really just that one movement, you know, somebody does and like, how can I get that into a practical application in front of a live audience?
Ben Ruth [00:11:47] Yeah. You know, and it’s real fun for me. What I did when I was kind of coming up with my character is true. Villains and the ability to be one has to come from somewhere inside. And if you really take a look at a lot of, you know, actors and stuff like that, it’s always the people who come off as like, the nice guy that everybody’s like, This person’s a wonderful person to work with. I love hanging out with them. They’re just a genuinely great person. Tend to make the best villains. And the reason why is there’s always those things that happen when you’re driving in traffic and someone cuts you off and you want to do something, but you don’t because it’s not right. But there’s just that feeling of anger that you just calm down and you don’t worry about it. And it’s a wonderful outlet for that because it’s a way that, you know, you can channel those emotions into something positive. So for me, I come out when I when I walk out the gate, I’m condescending. You know, I act real arrogant, a big one that I do intentionally because we’re working with kids. And as a bad guy, my goal is to make them hate me. Like that’s what I need to do. They shouldn’t like me. So though I never make fun of at his height in the real world, that is where I will. I’ll take the short one. I think.
Addie Ruth [00:13:06] It’s really.
Unidentified [00:13:07] Good that you think you can take me down. I try.
Ben Ruth [00:13:22] Because it’s something those kids can understand and identify with. They’re in a world where they’re accustomed to having adults just towering over them. So to have someone, you know, five, 11 walking out just towering over her and I’m.
Addie Ruth [00:13:35] Five one, by the way.
Ben Ruth [00:13:37] You know, and then having me walk out taunt her because she small saying, you don’t stand a chance against me because you are so little. And then she wants the fight. Like it’s a positive message for those kids. It’s reinforcing that, you know, don’t judge things by their size. You know, just because you’re small doesn’t mean you can’t do something. And that’s what I love about being a bad guy and doing this is I find ways to make myself look like the type of person you should stand up against. You should not let them win. And it just helps those kids understand that that’s what they need to work towards as well.
Juan Garcia [00:14:13] Kind of a common theme that we’ve noticed when making these segments is how these interests of ours start to kind of bleed into our day to day lives. Have you guys noticed any way where kind of exploring light saber choreography and certain fights and certain feelings, how that has kind of translated into your day to day lives or if you guys have developed maybe some kind of way of thinking or a skill that you guys draw on outside of the light saber choreography.
Ben Ruth [00:14:42] For me, one thing that I will say that this has kind of done is it has actually helped me open up as a person. I know I don’t look that much like it, but I’m actually a huge introvert getting in front of people, getting in front of crowds. That is not who I am as a person. You know, if I was left on my own to do whatever I won, I would be in my house glued to a TV or a computer, and the rest of the world outside can just go away. And, you know, this has gotten me more comfortable than I was before, being in front of people, being in front of a crowd, you know, having to go out. And it kind of breaks that routine that you get in where you don’t do anything. Whereas now, you know, we generally have events every other weekend and that’s on top of weekly practice. So I can never really get back in that comfort zone, which is fine because it’s teaching me how to exist outside of it.
Addie Ruth [00:15:39] I suppose on my side it’s very similar in that way. I’ve actually had a lot of stage fright even as a kid, even right now, you know, doing these shows and things like that. I will still always have that fear, you know, gosh, I’m about to get out there and put myself on display. And as much as we say it’s choreographed, it’s also more like choreographed improv because we are performing live. We don’t get the benefit of editing. You know, if something goes wrong in the middle of a show, you have to roll with it. And that has definitely started to play a little bit more in daily life as well. Just in my professional career, I work in like I.T. web design type situation and having to present to people. It’s kind of a similar thing where you don’t quite know what’s going to happen, so you just have to be on the ball, you know, improv your answer sometimes, and there’s definitely a lot of correlation there.
Juan Garcia [00:16:41] In your experience with Saber Guild, what are some of your favorite memories? Being a part of the organization and being able to perform with Light Saber in hand?
Ben Ruth [00:16:51] For me, it’s the small events. I like the big ones. I like entertaining kids. But there’s an event that they do down in San Antonio with American Cancer Association. It is where they bring in all of the kids who have cancer as children. And it’s a Halloween event that they do where they are able to come with their family. It’s a special event just for them. And our job is just entertainment. Make sure they have a great time, try to take their mind off of what they’re going through and all the kids who are kind of towards the end in hospice and things like that have a special name tag that way, you know, when one of those kids comes by your area, you make it the absolute best because the very unfortunate truth is that’s probably their last Halloween. And those events are so hard to do because you’re trying to not let it get to you and not break down crying in front of this kid, knowing what they’re going through because you’re trying to make it special for them. And the last thing you want to do is just show the slightest hint of sadness or anything like that. So they are some of the most emotionally challenging events to do, but they’re also the most rewarding because that is a memory I’m making for that kid, their family and stuff like that. It’s something that they can hold on to when the unfortunate event finally happens and just being able to be a part of that, being able to take their mind off of it, even if it’s just for a couple of hours and just let them enjoy being a kid that’s worth any amount of trouble, any amount of stress that I have going to practice every week. Those mornings when I wake up and I’m just like, I don’t want to do this today. It’s that that helps me push and keep going is knowing that I’m affecting lives like that.
Addie Ruth [00:18:35] And in that same vein, some of the other moments, they’re not like particular events. But I will say that especially here in Austin with Jack Who Temple, we happen to have a lot of female members. And some of the times that we’ll see in whatever event we’re doing is a lot of young girls who will come up to us and be like, my gosh, I want to be you, because they just saw us, you know, defeat this. If they don’t have any clue that it’s choreographed. Of course we planned all this to happen and whatnot, but they’re like, you know, they’ll come, you know, give us a big hug. It’s like, can I hold your lightsaber? They want to take a photo, especially with the female Jedi, because they see themselves. And it’s also very, very inspirational. And I’m realizing just how much of an impact that’s actually having in the community. And we’re seeing that, you know, globally, actually, because I hear a lot of those stories come out of all the different temples that we have across the world to.
Juan Garcia [00:19:35] Performing with Saber Guild and coming up with your your choreographed almost dances, I guess. Yes. Your your choreographed performances and just kind of having a light saber in your hand and performing for these kids or for whatever organization that it is that you guys are in front of. What does that do for your brain and for your heart?
Addie Ruth [00:19:57] My gosh. I’m giddy. Like the first time you actually attend a practice and you just, you know, hold a light saber, even though it’s really it’s an aluminum hilt with a plastic tube inside it. But even then, you’re like realizing, my gosh, this is actually somewhat real. And, you know, honestly, a little bit more real than if you were holding a phaser, you know, you could do a little bit more with that. And then actually going through the training and things like that and understanding that especially the system that we use is just so simple. And you it’s really just the flair that you put on top of that. And it’s really invigorating in a way of being like, yeah, I can do this. And then you step out onto the stage for the first time and you’re like nervous as heck going.
Ben Ruth [00:20:49] Who’s got a million miles to say.
Addie Ruth [00:20:51] Yeah, going, my gosh, what did I just get myself into? And then you start fighting and you kind of just get into that zone and you realize, I’m at the end of the fight and that’s it. And then it’s just, you know, rinse, wash, repeat from there.
Michael Lee [00:21:09] Thanks for listening that this is my thing. Special thinks this week to Ben and Addie Ruth, and thanks to Juan Garcia who produced this piece. and Juan, I know it didn’t take a lot of arm twisting to get you to produce a Star Wars radio piece.
Juan Garcia [00:21:22] No. You could have just hit me with Star Wars and I’ll figure out a way to get it on the radio.
Michael Lee [00:21:25] So several weeks ago, we presented another piece that you produced about tattoos. And for that piece, you got a tattoo at your own expense. I did. For this piece of I’m not mistaken, you ended up buying a custom lightsaber.
Juan Garcia [00:21:37] In a roundabout way, yes. It wasn’t quite a custom light saber, but I met up with Ben and Addie and the Jakku Temple Saber Guild folks up at the comic book convention that they have every year in Cedar Park. And I ended up meeting a guy who makes these custom lightsabers in town. And I’m a huge fan of Mace Windu, and the guy happened to have a very faithful recreation of Mace Windu, whose light saber helped with color changing and sound effects. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it. And I walked out of there with a bunch of tape from the Saber Guild folks of them teaching kids how to fight with light sabers and a light saber of my own, which I still have, and I still swing around every now and again. And it’s still as much fun as it was the day I bought it.
Michael Lee [00:22:30] So between the tattoos and the light saber and having some knowledge of public broadcasting not being a path to riches, are you breaking even on this project or are we costing you money?
Juan Garcia [00:22:40] Specifically with this project? I think it’ll be a while before I actually break even. Overall, in my time at the radio station, I think I’m in the in the green or in the black or however they say it in finance terms. I’m not really a financial guy, but for this project specifically, I think I’m still in debt.
Michael Lee [00:23:03] Thanks for your dedication.
Juan Garcia [00:23:04] You got it, Mike! Any time.
Michael Lee [00:23:08] We’ve got more This Is My Thing coming soon. We’re working on pieces with a ceramicist, a cake club, a community singing circle… Lots of really interesting stuff. If you’d like to tell us about your thing and maybe be a part of a future episode of the show, that’s easy. Just go to the This Is My Thing show page at KUT.org. You’ll find a form on that page that’ll let you tell us about your thing. And that is not the only form you can fill out on the KUT website. If you’re so inclined, you can also fill out a form that lets you become a member of this station. Our members make this and everything we do possible.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
