An actor who battled Matt Damon in the Bourne Identity and a Japanese martial arts specialist who choreographed key scenes in Kill Bill are to lead a stage and screen fighting workshop in Glasgow. Joey Ansah, who gained international recognition as Desh in The Bourne Ultimatum, is to teach the course alongside Tetsuro Shimaguchi, who gained international acclaim as the sword fight choreographer and actor - Crazy 88’s “Miki” - in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol 1. Run by Stage Fight Scotland and Acting Action Ltd, in association with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the four day course, The Claymore, billed as the first of its kind in over a decade, will teach stunts, stage combat, swordplay and martial arts. Also teaching the course is Paul MacDonald, founder of the MacDonald Academy of Arms and chief swordmaker at MacDonald Armouries and Anita Nittoly, a stunt performer, fight director and stage combat instructor, whose stunt credits include The Boys, The Expanse and DC’s Titans. Course director Rob Myles, a tutor at the Royal Conservatoire, first trained with Mr Shimaguchi when he was living in Japan 15 years ago and working as an English teacher, as well as a jobbing actor. “I went over principally to train in martial arts, karate, judo, jujitsu and kendo, and then I was entered into a karate sparring session with a guy who was new to the club that day, and he had a long sleeve shirt,” he recalled. “Long sleeves mean tattoos, which in Japan means that kind of very respectful version of organised crime.” A few hours later, he was taken to A&E with a collapsed throat. “That whole experience was a big epiphany for me of, ‘Oh, I don't want to do this for real. I want to be a performer, and I want to tell stories, and if I want to be involved in violence, it's the safe depiction of it, not the painful kind.” He started training under Mr Shimaguchi before working to become an accredited tutor through the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat. “I just absolutely fell in love with it,” he said. Now, he teaches stage and screen combat at the Royal Conservatoire, where he also holds short workshops which are open to the public. He wants to pass on his skills to actors and stunt performers to boost the skill set available to directors in Scotland. “I'm trying to bring all of those people together here to train and to develop those skills so that when these big productions come to Scotland, there are people from Scotland that can do the work for them they need doing,” he said. “I imagine the core audience would probably be actors, performers, martial artists, stunt men, people of that nature. But then you can add to that people that do physical theatre, people who work in film, actors that are already there and want to update their skill set. “But if there are people who are enthusiasts, people who just love it and have always dreamed of being a part of this, there's no better way to find out what that really means than coming to this workshop.” Places on the course, which will run from 21 to 24 August, are available here.