When you do medieval fencing, you use unsharpened Swords which are also blunt at the top, so slashing and spiking moves don't do any harm (well, except a few bruises every now and then LOL). Even if it looks otherwise, the moves aren't carried out with a lot of force - in a "real life combat", these swords would have been razorsharp, and thanks to the high leverage you don't need serious power to cut someone in half... I do highly recommend the use of protective Gloves, nevertheless. A Friend of mine is fencing without, and he has already had some broken Fingers :-S
@ the dancing topic:
I don't think that these fancy moves make any sense at all. They look great at a Kung-Fu-Show or in the movies, but in a real life Confrontation you stick to simple, quick moves that keep you alife and do the job, i.e. killing someone...
besides, in a full scale battle, you haven't got a lot of space to move around.
Not very suprisingly, the medieval fencing also includes Brawling and Wrestling. The Punches and Kicks there are mostly simple hits to vital areas. Sometimes these Competitions look very much like armed Barfights LOL