NYC Kids Get Jedi Master Training at Saber Kids! Classes

7/7/13 - By Alina Adams

So your child wants to be a Jedi Master? My Star Wars-loving kids certainly do. In fact, one of my sons is so obsessed, last year he took a demo class with New York Jedi: The Light Saber Enthusiasts Collective, a group of cosplayers and martial artists who specialize in stage combat based on a mash-up of fencing, kendo and the world of Star Wars.

Since the New York Jedi have primarily worked only with adults, they made an exception for my son to take their Jedi training class, but apparently, my son wasn't the only underage aspiring Jedi in NYC. Demand for kids' classes was so great, New York Jedi is set to debut Saber Kids!, the first-ever five-week light saber stage combat training program aimed specifically at children ages 7 to 13. May the course be with you!

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With a combined 30 years of experience teaching martial arts, dancing and acting, the Saber Kids! instructors promise to teach your budding Jedi Knight (or Sith Lord, no judgments) proper light saber technique as well as the performance skills necessary to truly get into character. Like a traditional martial arts course, participants learn self-confidence, mutual respect and get a great workout, but they also get the fun of a live action role-playing game.

Beginning July 23, kids attend two weekly sessions for five consecutive weeks on Tuesdays from 6 to 8pm and Saturdays from 10am to noon. Family and friends are invited to watch their freshly-minted Jedi Masters show off their new skills at the final lesson on Saturday, August 24.

Classes are capped at 20 students, and children ages 7-10 and 11-13 will be separated into skill-appropriate groups. The cost for the five weeks is $360 if you have your own preapproved light saber (hey, we do!), and $435 if you need Saber Kids! to provide one, but those need to be ordered ASAP. Classes will be held at Ripley-Grier Studios, at 520 Eighth Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets on the 16th floor. If you're interested, you can register online. Questions? Contact info@saberkids.com. There is no phone number but they're good about answering email.

Want more Star Wars-themed activities? Check out our previous posts about Star Wars Birthday Parties and everyday ways to get your Jedi on.

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About the Author

Alina Adams

Alina Adams - NYC Writer

Alina was born in the former Soviet Union, spent her teen years in San Francisco, and came to New York City to work for ABC Daytime and ABC Sports. She spent her pre-marriage/pre-kid years as a figure-skating researcher and producer for the U.S. and World Championships, the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and various professional shows.

After learning that international travel and resentful toddlers don’t mix, she switched to PGP Productions and its soap operas As the World Turns and Guiding Light, where she wrote New York Times best-selling tie-in books and developed interactive properties like AnotherWorldToday.com.

The birth of her third child (and the process of enrolling her two older kids into NYC schools—a full-time job in itself!) convinced Alina that she was not, in fact, Superwoman, and prompted her to leave TV and turn to writing books, including romance novels (Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga, When a Man Loves a Woman), figure-skating mysteries (Murder on Ice, On Thin Ice) and nonfiction (Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments).

In addition to contributing to Mommy Poppins, Alina blogs for Jewish parenting site Kveller.com and is in the process of turning her previously published backlist into enhanced e-books with multimedia features like audio, video and more. Follow her exhaustive and exhausting efforts to become a Mommy Media Mogul (is that a thing? If it isn’t, it really should be) at AlinaAdams.com and on Google+