Paul Burke, Director for film, television and theatre

Istarted off as a teenager doing tae kwan do, which is not dissimilar to karate. It's high energy and aerobic with high kicks and stuff – great for anyone who has lots of energy.

I've also got training in aikido, which lends itself to performance because the nature of it is that one person harmonises with another, and it has an aesthetic, a good flowing style.

I've been doing fight directing since 1995. Before I started out I wasn't even aware this kind of thing existed.

I took classes with a guy who directed all the fights in the Abbey in the '70s and '80s. His name was Mark Shelley and he was a sword master and actor and fight choreographer. He was a straight-talking kind of guy who used to specialise in sabre work and historical character-driven work. He gave me the qualifications that I needed to get.

I've never had any serious accidents. You have to make things as safe as possible. With stage weapons you have to make sure there's no points or edges, but even with that, people are going to slip and trip. It's like a dance show. They're as likely to roll over on an ankle dancing in a club after a few pints as they are to do it on stage.

The resistable rise of arturo ui is a very funny play, very quick witted. The dialogue is very snappy, so we're trying to get the actions to suit that. The retorts are sharp, there's a real Cagney and Bogart and Edward G Robinson violence kind of thing, real wise-guy stuff, so we're trying to suit the actions to the words.

It's all about the particular show, as opposed to putting your mark on it. You work with the actors and within the director's vision. Some directors have things completely planned in advance, and some are quite fluid and allow stuff to come out in the rehearsal process. What the actors bring to the table helps to shape it too.

In theatre the actors have to bring that physicality to the performance every night and they have to do it in one go. In film it can be one or two takes and it's over. It's not that one is easier than the other, but they're very different from the performers' point of view.