>Attack into the now empty space, the opponent Parries "into" the attack, but their body is out of the way

I've never done any sort of theater but have done some boxing and kickboxing type stuff. Newbies will often instinctively do what you describe and need to be trained out of it. A more advanced person sparring with the newer person will suddenly stop and make no attempt to get out of the way of an attack which will still not hit them because it was aimed at empty space in front of their nose for example.