On Saturday, May 21st, the dojo community will get together, along with friends and family, for our annual spring fundraiser. The event—a lively, fun-filled evening of food, drinks and music—will be hosted by Halyards, a friendly neighborhood pub that recently opened next door to the dojo.
Proceeds from this year's Spring Fundraiser will go directly to the dojo's scholarship fund, which supports the training of young people in our programs––in some cases through full scholarships––and subsidizes adult members’ attendance at aikido seminars. As anyone familiar with Aikido knows, the benefits of practice extend far beyond the dojo’s walls, allowing the diligent student to approach life in a calm and centered way. Especially for young people at the beginning of their life’s journey, these benefits are incalculable. For this reason, Brooklyn Aikikai is dedicated to supporting our young students in every way possible.
The evening promises to be a fun one in this fantastic venue with good friends, music, and delicious hors d'oeuvres and drinks. Guests will also have the opportunity to support the dojo by purchasing raffle tickets.
We would love to see you at Halyards on May 21st, but if you cannot attend, please consider making a donation or purchasing raffle tickets.
Date: Saturday, May 21, 2011.
Time: 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: Halyards, 3rd Ave/6th St. in Gowanus, Brooklyn (next door to the dojo)
Admission tickets: $20 each (includes 1 complimentary drink & hors d'oeuvres)
Raffle tickets: $3 for 1; $10 for 4
Raffle prizes to be determined. In the past, we have had restaurant coupons, spa treatments, clothing and other exciting offers.
To purchase admission and/or raffle tickets, please click here:
http://brooklynaikikai.com/dojoinformation/events/SpringEvent2011.html
Our Tendokan Dojo welcomed Etsuji Horii Shihan from Kobe, Japan for a two-day seminar over the weekend August 21-22. In addition to the seminar, Horii Shihan taught our regular classes on Friday and Monday as well.
One thing Horii Shihan repeated both in the seminar and in the classes was “musubi”—the idea of connection with one’s partner. Staying “connected” with my partner has been difficult for me both in uke and tori. Although I know the whole body must move from the center in accordance to the flow of the technique, I often feel as if there’s some blockage right around where my hand meets my partner, making the area from my hand to my shoulder rather rigid.
For whatever reason, hearing the word in Japanese gave me a new image about staying connected with my partner during a technique. Musubi can be translated as “tying” (as in an obi, or a rope), and is also used for the idea of “union” (it is the first character in the characters for “wedding,” which ties into the idea of “blending” that Sensei often mentions). Whereas my image (due to my insufficient understanding of the concept) of staying connected with my partner was a stiff, stick-meets-stick type of a picture, I now have an image that it is more dynamic and flexible, like a rope, and this has given me a kind of breakthrough in how I stay connected both in uke and tori.
This was a concrete reminder that many points of entry exist for absorbing and understanding Aikido. It may be a word, a physical movement, a spatial orientation, or yet, something else. I hope my training will deepen so I can become ever more open to those points of entry into a revelation/discovery.On New Year's Eve Day we held our annual winter dojo cleaning and 28 members and friends came to help! We took up the mats, emptied the closets, and scrubbed the dojo from top to bottom. Thank you to everyone who gave so much of their time and energy on that day.
Later that evening, twenty people gathered to train and celebrate the end of 2010 at Brooklyn Aikikai. We started at 10 pm with misogi chanting followed by a half hour of zazen (sitting meditation). At 11:30 pm Savoca Sensei led a vigorous class that took us into 2011. The dojo kansho (large bell) was rung from the rooftop 108 times to mark the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. After the class we broke out the sake and made toasts to honor our teachers past and present, the community of the dojo, and all who could not be with us.
It was probably about 1:30 am by the time we sat down to our formal dinner. Three appetizers (including foie gras pate), homemade pasta with pesto sauce, salad, and the main entree: wild boar accompanied by chard and parmesan. Dessert was homemade gelato - espresso or lemon, and a tarte tatin. It was a real feast! Thank you to all of the chefs - especially Mike Mikos who spent days (really) preparing a significant share of the dishes!
In between courses there was entertainment: we had impromptu skits, several impersonations, and a live band down on the mat before dessert!! After the meal had been cleaned up it was time to bring out the microphones and the projector for the (now) traditional KARAOKE! The details of that shall be known only to those who were there... you'll have to come next year to find out how many great (or at least enthusiastic) singers we have in the dojo.
Cormac Savoca joined the party at about 5:30 am and things were still going strong. The last people to leave didn't go until about 6:45 am (that's more than an hour later than the year before... I'm a bit nervous about what will happen for 2012!).
It was a fantastic night of strong training, terrific food, and great fun. Thank you to everyone for making it so great. Special thanks to Matt Desmond, Liese Klein Sensei, and Rodger Park Sensei for joining us!
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