“Ichi-Ni-San-Shi” shouted demonstrators last night, kicking off the Stanford Martial Arts Expo at Burnham Pavilion with a fierce combat exhibition.

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Gus Jewell

A member of the Stanford Taekwondo Club smashes through a pile of concrete slabs last night at the Martial Arts Expo in Burnham Pavilion. The event, which was open to all community members interested in learning about martial arts, showcased Stanford’s ten diverse student groups.

Over fifty undergraduates, graduate students and community members attended the second annual expo. During the evening, ten campus martial arts groups treated attendees to a brief taste of their skills, hoping to recruit new members.

“The expo is the best opportunity for students to decide what practice they would like to try,” said Shotokan Karate Club President Nick Cizek, a graduate student in physics. “We can’t really show what we’re about at a normal activities fair.”

The expo is the only time each year when students can see the great diversity of martial arts programs available at Stanford all in one room. Performances included Brazilian Capoeira, the traditional Filipino martial art Eskrima, Taekwando, Judo, Aikido, Wushu, Shotokan, Jujitsu and Kenpo Karate. Styles varied from graceful routines to combat sequences, one of which involved swords.

A question and answer session followed the demonstrations, and each audience member had the opportunity to speak with individual groups.

Freshmen made up approximately half of the audience at Burnham Pavilion. Most students came with little experience in martial arts, hoping the expo would spark a particular affinity for one practice or another, but some had more particular motives for attending.

Samantha Perlman ‘11 said she came because she saw martial arts shows at New Student Orientation and wanted to learn more. A Resident Assistant in the Kempo program inspired Aaron Kalb ‘11 to attend the expo, though he admitted his primary combat sport was fencing.

Praveen Shanbhag, a graduate student in philosophy, related a horror story of a recent trip to England that inspired him to learn martial arts. While at a bar, he said, he witnessed the inappropriate pinching of a young female by an inebriated townie and felt compelled to defend the woman, only to realize he lacked the physical means to defend himself against the assailant. He came to the expo hoping to find the most “damage-inflicting” martial arts practice to adopt and was considering either Aikido or Jujitsu.

No matter what students’ reasons were for attending, martial arts groups are hopeful that the Martial Arts Expo helped them recruit new members. Each club stressed that beginners were welcome all first quarter and should stop by their on-campus practices.