Watching kung fu movies and practicing your Bruce Lee moves in the mirror is fun — but what about joining a studio that teaches multiple forms of martial arts and is run by a professional stunt performer? Enter Ryouko Martial Arts.
Although the space used to house a different martial arts school, martial arts teacher and competitor Chris Mark took it over in November 2008 from the original school — which he had close connections with — and transformed it into Ryouko Martial Arts, which teaches multiple forms of martial arts and extreme athletics.
The studio’s multifaceted focus is hinted at in the name itself, as Chris explains with a mix of pride and humour: “Ryouko” is Japanese and stands for the rivalry between dragon and tiger. The dragon represents wisdom and the tiger represents strength, so we interpret that as ‘modern’ versus ‘traditional.’ That’s essentially what our background is. It’s a mixture of traditional martial arts with modern, new-age, extreme sports. And it sounds cool, too!”
