LUMINA – Saber Choreography Notation System

The LUMINA Notation System is a free, open-source weapon combat notation system that is used for saber choreographies (commonly referred to lightsaber battling) . LUMINA is designed from an "Attacker's perspective" and movements are choreographed. Attackers initiate and Defenders respond to counter their attacks. It's very simple to understand as it uses a "clock" as a reference. Give it a try and try our first lesson. Once you get the hang of it, register for free and begin learning our Choreographed Movements. Apply it to your choreographies and hand it out to your students as the system is royalty-free as long as you attribute. Teach others and have fun.

Saber Choreography Notation

  1. Feel free to use this notation system to notate your fight and distribute within your club or beyond.
  2. You can freely teach this notation and choreography style as long as it is attributed in the work that you are using "LUMINA Notation".
  3. If it is published on the web, please use this exact attribution with the link: Notation using LUMINA Notation

 

The Target Points

Attacking

Imagine a clock and place your partner or foe in the middle of that clock. When attacking, swing the saber so that the tip is at the target point (see below). When you attack a “1”, swing the saber with the tip of your blade arriving at the “1-o-clock” mark which would be around the left side of your partner’s head. In LUMINA, The saber should come to within 6 inches of the target and stops there. Control your saber firmly and arrive at the target point accurately. Step forward while attacking.
1 Attack"
11 Attack"
3 Attack"
9 Attack"
5 Attack"
7 Attack"

Defending

Picture a clock. Now, mirror it and place yourself in the center of that clock. When defending - imagine that ‘you are the clock’. You are positioning your hands at a number on the clock. As in many martial arts, defending is more difficult than attacking. Hold your saber firmly and remind your partner to attack a particular target point with accuracy focusing on meeting your blade, not your body. While defending you are stepping backwards with your defended attack.
1P Parry 1"
11P Parry 11"
3P Parry 3"
9P Parry 9"
5 Attack"
7P Parry 7"

Introduction to the LUMINA Notation System

Notation Sample

Notation is then written in the following form:

The choreography above then states the following:

  • Participant (Lumen) A will attack their partner's 1-o-clock Target; Lumen B will parry (block) the attack
  • Participant (Lumen) A will attack their partner's 11-o-clock Target; Lumen B will parry (block) the attack
  • Participant (Lumen) A will attack their partner's 3-o-clock Target; Lumen B will parry (block) the attack
  • Participant (Lumen) A will attack their partner's 9-o-clock Target; Lumen B will parry (block) the attack
  • Participant (Lumen) A will attack their partner's 5-o-clock Target; Lumen B will parry (block) the attack
  • Participant (Lumen) A will attack their partner's 7-o-clock Target; Lumen B will parry (block) the attack

Complete Notation Legend

Next Steps

Moving to the next stage is actually becoming a part of the community. This is about building groups so you can practice, learn and grow with others. As a fellow Lumeneer, you learn our system, memorize our choreographed movements, build your own choreographies and ultimately, build a community to share this with. Register for free and you'll have access to our collection of completed choreographies inspired by film and TV taking the guesswork out of figuring out the fight frame by frame.

Copyright and Usage

Feel free to use this notation to publish your contribution to the community freely. LUMINA Notation (originally Temporal) is developed by Sabercraft.org and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Be sure to attribute the system as the LUMINA Notation System.