Sword fighters perform for GR children

Dueling Dames, a feisty mother-daughter duo, used humor and education in their performance at Centennial Park.

This performance was part of the Sweetwater County Library summer lineup last Thursday.

The Dueling Dames, Victoria and Carson Goring, have been traveling across country sharing their live theater act. They try to incorporate anti-bullying, girl power and self-defense into their performances.

Becky Iwen, youth services librarian, began the mid-morning program with a high five contest. The contestants dressed up as big green inflatable aliens.

Sawyer Kreis loved being in the suit and running through the crowd to give high fives. He received a free T-shirt from the library for his participation.

The Dueling Dames took over the show from there. They began their skit jumping into introductions and talking about treating the swords as weapons, not toys. The dames taught their audience a couple sword moves and then selected a few members of the audience to join them on stage to duel.

Abby Allred, Iliana Birmingham, Aiden Cook and Grant Fauntleroy were selected. They were given a quick lesson from Carson, while Victoria entertained the crowd with jokes and historical facts. Then the group of kids joined the actresses on stage to duel.

They used foam swords to fight their opponents and at the end they all lost confirming that violence doesn’t solve problems.

“I liked being able to participate in the sword fight close to the end of the event,” Allred said. “I thought it was cool to learn more about sword fighting and self defense. It was so fun.”