Choreographing Two-Man Forms
-It Takes Action, Reactions, and Timing Plus a Discreet Distance.
Inside Kung Fu /June -82 , Jane Hallander

Putting together a strongly visual, entertaining two-man form is harder --and easier--than it may seem. Planning out the techniques is the easy part. Knowing how to make them come alive is another thing altogether. "Actually planning it out, as far as picking the moves, that's not as hard as getting together on the timing and distance later on," explained James Lew. Lew and his performing partner , Carrie Ogawa-Wong, have achieved notoriety dong demonstrations at tournaments and other events in the last few years.

"You both know the techniques already," Lew added, "so you're not learning new moves , you're just applying them in a different way." According to James and Carrie , making the set look right is a matter of pacing, proper reactions, and knowing when to include a risky move
--and when not to.

"We start by taking just a few basic moves and then working in both directions," Carrie said. "There are forms that just stay in one spot --clang, clang, clang, then they switch positions --clang, clang, clang. In a real situation , the spear is more likely to chase the sword, and the other guys is either going to charge you, or run back and jump, or whatever. If it is too preset, with one person waiting and just clanging the weapons together , it ends up bing just a bunch of noise."
James and Carrie actually strike for each others body, rather than aim to hit the other person's weapon. Sometimes they come quite close, but sometimes that's not necessary. "If your're doing your form for demonstrations, you might do some moves at an angle,
so that is looks close for the audience, but there's actually no danger," Carrie continued. "But sometimes I don't have to get that close --the only thing they see is the opponent's reaction. Of course , the closer you get , the better it helps the other person react --If you've actually got a spear jabbing at you whileyou're on the ground , believe me, you react."

There are other situaltions when the techniques must be very close indeed in order for the set to look realistic. "There's a good example of that in our routine," Carrie said, " a technique when I stab at James' neck. That spear can not fly out; I have to keep it in contact with his neck.

If I stab and it's off his shoulder, or I drop it on his shoulder, there is a danger involved. I could miss. So what I'm going to do is get that spear as close as I can, and slide it right across his shoulder," she said.
At first, there were problem areas that had to be identified and worked out, even after the sequence of techniques was down. "When we started , we tried the spear thrust with or without a shirt, and James skin actually caught the spear... We ended up having to make sure that his uniform had a small collar, so the spear would slide across when he ducked underneath it," Carrie noted.

These were things that had to be perfected by doing the set over and over. And in practice , there were sometimes little mistakes that kept it from being all fun and games. At one point , they kept were trying to perfect the very close spear stab, and Carrie tried to come as close as she could. "Thats when I stabbed him in the neck," Carrie said, shaking her head. " And it bled. It went right over the collar bone and the spear tip went right in. James didn't say a word, he just turned white. Scared me to death," she said. ("Was it something I said?" asked James later.)

To this day , everytime they go throught thier routine, both James and Carrie are aware of what can happen if one of the techniques is off, even a bit. Over the years they have built up a high degree of confidence in each other, and they kid about the few "accidents" they have had.

But when they do the set in public they go full-blast. Lew works frequently in movies and television along with making occasional magazine appearances. His experiance with cameras and film sessions have helped him make proper reactions. To hear him explain it , it's almost as if he keeps his strikes soft , but snaps his reactions.
"Half of what makes it look good is the person making the reaction. When that sword is coming, if the other person reacts as well , that takes half the pressure off. It's a matter of letting you body loose enough. You have to be relaxed when you react, but you have to be powerful when you make the motion." he said. "The TV experience has made me gear more to things to the audience and to be more visual. You make the cuts alittle wider, a little bigger... Over the years it's become second nature," he said with a shrug.

His pacing of a set also has a lot to do with its ability to create drama and please a audience, and observation of touring Chinese wu shu teams taught them alot. " The thing about the wu shu people is they have nice lines," Carrie said. "They know exactly when thier chest should be thrown out and when to stop and pose. But then, with the wu shu performing, even though some of the techniques look really nice, it can be almost to dance like. So you can vary it a bit, and include the traditional moves and still have it look great. When you do the forms with the weapons, there's so much clashing going on that you need breaks to allow the audience to look at it , and enjoy it. So there are alot of times when you really have to pause , just to get everything together--stop, and look at each other and go on."

"The pause emphasizes your stance and gives you a moment's rest," James added, laughing out loud when he thought of how tired he gets during the routine. Recovering , he added," It's like having a period at the end of a sentence."

Have they ever made a mistake in a demonstration? "Several times," Carrie said, with a wry expression on her face. "Thats when knowing what the other person is doing is really valuable. If he makes a mistake, I can pick up on the next move -- and he better be watching. With parts that we know might cause a problem , sometimes we preplan a get-out before we demonstrate it. We try to work out what happens if something goes wrong, or if we drop a weapon." James Lew and Carrie Ogawa-Wong have more opportunity to work out a professional presentation than the average kung-fu practitioner. Carrie has been nationally ranked as a solo forms competitor , and she also teaches traditional kung-fu classes on a daily basis. She averages four hours of trainer per day. James has over 16 years experiance in the martial arts, and he keeps busy doing demonstrations, stunt work, and chasing down acting parts. Both make frequent demonstrations appearances at tournaments on the West Coast.