What’s the difference between a “brawl” and a “melee”? A “fight” – and a “rumble”?

Quite a lot, especially when it’s happening onstage. And Shaun Rolly, a fight director who specializes in combat for theatrical productions, knows how to create it all. Mr. Rolly has directed the fights of a long list of operas and plays, but this week his work can be seen when American Ballet Theatre presents “Raymonda.” Though this lush ballet is a romance, there is a dramatic duel at the end – and, thanks to Mr. Rolly, there should be some rather realistic fencing.

The plot of “Raymonda” concerns a love triangle: two heroes – the exotic knight Abderakhman and the local good guy Jean de Brienne – vie for the hand of the beautiful Raymonda. Jean de Brienne turns out to be the lucky guy, but his rival doesn’t take rejection easily. The gritty Abderakhman demands a duel. Jean de Brienne still gets the girl in the end. When ABT re-created this ballet for the 2004 season, artistic director Kevin McKenzie and choreographer Anna-Marie Holmes brought in Mr. Rolly to teach the dancers how to get scrappy. “Kevin and Anna-Marie wanted the fight to look real, and not balletic,” said Mr. Rolly. Mr. Rolly, who is based in Pittsburgh, came to New York and worked with the four sets of male leads in three four-hour sessions.

Ballet dancers spend their lives learning smooth, beautiful movements – not aggressive posturing. “They’re doing arm movements that are foreign to them. It was hard for them to cut the balletic grace out of their movement,” he said. “By the time I left, everybody was right on. They looked like they were trying to kill each other.”

The one element Mr. Rolly had in his favor when teaching ballet dancers to fence is the inherent similarity in some of the foot movements. “Fencing and ballet started around the same time. The standard fencer’s position is ballet’s fourth position,” he said.

But the fencing isn’t the only part that Mr. Rolly staged. “They also wanted a little bit of a melee to start before. Not a brawl, but a melee. The tension starts to build, there’s some pushing and grabbing.”

In this scene, every push, shove, and grab is as choreographed as the ballet steps that Petipa strung together. And, if it’s all done correctly, it will look like the most natural thing in the world. What Mr. Rolly had to add is the element of surprise.

“My philosophy of a two-person fight is that the entire stage is used. It’s used by everybody’s reaction and having the fight travel,” he said.

At one point in the fight, Abderakhman and Jean de Brienne travel to the extreme down-right stage. Their movement has fierce momentum, as if they’re going to hit a few bystanders. Which is all part of a fight director’s craft. “If there were a fight on the street, people would gather round,” Mr. Rolly said. “There’d be a close call or people would endanger themselves by being in the wrong place. It ups the ante for the audience.”

How does one acquire the skills for such an esoteric job? For Mr. Rolly, the career path began in the theater. By 13 he was treading the boards, and he moved on later to community theater and performance classes in college. When he became interested in more than acting, he founded a small dance company. “I was fascinated by the swashbuckling films and by movement, commedia dell’arte and mime and dance.”

He later disbanded the dance company in order to focus on stage fighting. His education with the Society of American Fight Directors took about three years; the classes were in different parts of the country. On a trip to Las Vegas, he happened to catch the Treasure Island stunt show and was dazzled by the fact that the performers were making a living with the full-throttle movement. He found a stunt school in Seattle and jumped right in – quite literally.

“So there I was lit on fire. I jumped off a four-story platform. It was the time of my life,” he said. “I wanted to make a career, and I wanted to get training that other fight directors didn’t have.”

With the knowledge in hand, he started marketing himself to theater groups. He gained more credibility by joining in the International Order of the Sword and the Pen, a group of fight directors. He worked his way up the theater-world ladder, and by the time he was brought in to the Pittsburgh Public Theater for a production of “Romeo and Juliet” directed by Ted Pappas in 2001, he was on the map. His name was passed around the circuit, landing him gigs as varied as the Pittsburgh Opera’s “Carmen” and the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival’s human chess match (17 fights per match).

Until ABT came calling, Mr. Rolly had never worked on a ballet. And he entered into the “Raymonda” rehearsals with a bit of trepidation, mainly about the dancers’ egos. But he was quickly put at ease. “They are the kindest, most laid-back people,” he said. “Everybody was nice and joking around. It was just an amazing experience.”

When he traveled to Manhattan last year to create the fights for “Raymonda,” he trained the dancers at ABT’s rehearsal studios near Union Square. Last week, he returned to New York to refresh the dancers at the Metropolitan Opera House studios. Which was an exciting landmark for this member of the Independent Fight Directors Guild: “It’s my first time going to the Met as an employee, not a tourist.”

To catch Mr. Rolly’s work in action, see “Raymonda” at the Met from June 7 to 11.

***

New York City Ballet principal Peter Boal was feted on Sunday afternoon in fine ballet tradition. For his final performance with City Ballet, Mr. Boal was treated to a hail of flowers and wild ovations from an adoring audience. The evening’s lead ballerinas and the principal’s family also brought bouquets to this beloved performer.

Mr. Boal will soon move out to the West Coast to take over the artistic directorship of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. In that role, he will continue to influence the future of ballet, which is certainly all to the good. His taste and creative energies are first-rate; if he can encourage other artists by his leadership, we will have much to watch in the coming years.