I am posting this on Martin Luther King Monday. The theme of our in person class yesterday was about dancing. I want to codify that both Aikido and dance are movement arts and also can be recreational activities. Depending on your interests you might be attracted to Aikido because it can have a dance like feel to it. My sense of the word in my class was a little different. Years ago a TV sports personality(Steven A Smith I believe) was asked to compare LaBron James and Stephen Curry. This was just as our local hero was getting national notice. Smith's response was to not underestimate Curry. Even though physically not as dominant as LaBron, Smith's response was something like,"Curry's a mean dude. He can DANCE!" So his use of the word dance had a bit of a street sports parlance to it. He can Move. He can handle(the ball). Or simply he can create.
Love this photo because it looks like Tai Chi. Cool under pressure. Lately we've locally been treated to Brock Purdy, Mr Irrelavant, the last player chosen in the last NFL draft who is leading the local Niners into the playoffs. Like Curry he's cool under pressure. Can move around enough to seemingly make something out of nothing. He makes his teamates better. He brings up memories of Joe Montana, who an NFL announcer branded once as "the man with the Fred Astaire feet". So dancing in sports can mean cool even creative under the pressure of the game.' They elevate sport into art.
So our class was about bringing this into being through Aikido movement. Here is the link to the
What I wanted to share is at the end of the class video. But for those of you who don't want to wade through the class I thought I would tell the story of one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. In 1977 I spent most of the year in Japan, training at the Kumano Juku or Shingu dojo. With me was Jenny's mom, who had an extensive dance background. I had heard that Osensei had a close friend, a woman who was a teacher of traditional Japanese dance. She was referred to as Yamamoto sensei. And it was said that Osensei had told her,"Your dancing is like my Aikido!" So we found out that she was local, which made us want to take classes from her. So we went and were accepted as students.
At that time Yamamoto sensei was I believe in her eighties and that the previous winter had been very hard on her. She would sit and the dance movements were taught by her niece Noriko. But even though she did very little movement she could convey so much with and expression or a gesture. Well one of the dances we learned was the theme song to a Judo movie, Sugata Sanshiro. And the only time I ever saw her dance was to this song. Robert Nadeau has told me that the essence of Osensei's art was not technique, although his has not been topped to my mind either. But his ability to go from Ueshiba the old man, who would walk into walls, to Ueshiba of Aikido, who could not be touched. So transformation. And when the music started this little old lady who barely moved started to do a martial dance where she did jump kicks where her feet literally touched the ceiling of her house. Now Japanese houses have low ceilings, but even still..........
So I saw her transform from an old lady into something my words cannot describe. She literally stood on her version of the Floating Bridge of Heaven. So I can understand how in some sense she and Osensei could be soulmates.
Anyway, I had totally forgotten this story until I taught the Sunday class. It means I have to re-assess what I think Aikido is.......
