A new dojo is a place of fear, anticipation, dreams and smiles of delight. Canberra dojo started with an explosion of visitors and a great opening seminar in 2008.
Then the visitors went home and Ann Reekie Sensei was on her own to pass on Aikido. When I attended grading’s there last week I realised just how Aikido evolves in the traditional way. The graciously gentle art of giving together with given time.
Two years ago the students were all first timers on the mat. As you can imagine there was a (how can I say) a mess of concepts as to what was supposed to be going on, as to what one saw when the demonstrations were ‘YouTube-d’ to your enlightenment.
There was however, this time a structure of learned Aikido that was demonstrated to the point where grades were awarded according to time honoured tradition. In fact there was a small tradition that has started there, which I have only seen at Ann Sensei’s dojo. Of course you will only learn this tradition by joining her family.
I can’t wait for the next grading to discover the next stage in an evolving dojo and the gentle art of Aikido.
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