The following message was sent by General Instructor Pierre Quettier to attendees at France’s recent national Shintaido event for instructors and assistants. The event was intended to strengthen the relationship among faculty through in-depth practices and discussions on matters of teaching. We are republishing it here as an inspirational message to all Shintaido instructors and practitioners. [Body Dialogue editor.]
Reaching the Shodan / Jun-shidoin (Graduate) level of a Shintaido curriculum (Bojutsu, Karate, freehand Shintaido, and now, Kenjutsu) means that one now possesses all the elements of action and meaning to deepen its study and its application in the dojo and in various situations of everyday life.
To give gorei in Shintaido, means in the strict sense, “to give the tempo of the collective action” (counting aloud) and more broadly “to order the beginning or the stop of the action,” and “to decide the nature of action,” directing the action of a group of people (including oneself) in the course of personal development.
If one chooses to study and apply Shintaido while directing such a group, one creates in a certain fashion “squared Shintaido” (Shintaido²) . To make “squared Shintaido” implies that the gorei becomes our means of personal artistic expression and at the same time a privileged space to improve ourselves by ourselves and by and for the group by means of the common language of practice.
Pierre Quettier
In such a symbolic and collective space everything makes sense and the limits are the ones we give ourselves.
Everything makes sense because the practical space (the dojo), the relational space (the micro-society of the group) and the cultural space (the field of references of the group) are connected in multiple ways, explicit and implicit. The learning of the group occurs only if these different dimensions come into resonance, in coherence.
In all of these situations, the responsibility of the goreisha is very significant.
I have enjoyed steam cleaning the floors at Ojas Yoga Center for over a year. It is a quiet time when I have the studio to myself. On reflection, I realized my attitude toward cleaning floors was probably different than others at Ojas.
I learned the traditional Japanese style of floor cleaning through my Shintaido practice. I describe this to yoga practitioners as pushing a wet towel across the floor while running in Downward Dog — often in full-sized basketball gymnasiums with dirty floors. I put in about 15 years’ worth of pushing wet towels!
Americans generally think of cleaning as menial labor, but I always remember Ito telling me that floor cleaning was an act of spreading good Ki (Chi) energy as a base for our practice. So exhausting though it was, I tried to keep in mind the benefit to those practicing with me.
Tomi Ahhh!
I remember that when our bodies couldn’t do the traditional floor cleaning any more, we switched to a wide floor mop but kept the same intention.
So when my yoga teacher showed me how she cleaned the floors at Ojas I knew exactly what to do: start at one end and clean board-by-board until the whole space was done. Using a Swifter mop is even easier than a floor mop so it felt almost luxurious. I’ve tried to remember to spread good energy when I walk back and forth across the yoga studio, though of course my mind eventually wanders.
I really feel that intention is important in life. One of the things I do outside of yoga is teaching visual meeting facilitation. When we talk about group dynamics I always say that a facilitator’s intention creates the space for great conversation. And I always remember Ito telling me that I should hold an image in my mind of what I want my students to experience, without revealing what that image is. People feel and respond to a strong intention in subtle and powerful ways.
Care and intention, practiced over tens or hundreds of years, create rich layers of awareness. I am reminded of the feeling in Kyoto, Japan where people have been meditating for over a thousand years.
Kyoto
There is an amazing and indescribable feeling that hangs in the air which I can only ascribe to 1,500 years of Buddhist and Shinto practices. Cleaning the floor is a small thing, but something important in the long term.
A few weeks ago, Peter Furtado of British Shintaido posted a charming video of two young people, Oscar Sharpe and Stephanie Roinier, teaching Shintaido to children in Guatemala. I obtained their email addresses from Peter, and contacted them with a few questions. Below are their answers, and a link to the video. Enjoy! [Body Dialogue Editor]
Q. Please tell us a little about yourselves. Are you a couple? Where do you live? A. We have been going out for over a year and are a couple – boyfriend and girlfriend. Right now we are traveling the world and exploring Central America. Beforehand we were both living in Bristol. Oscar – I am English, born in France and lived in Bristol for a couple of years. In my younger years golf was a major part of my life and something which I took very seriously. A number of events took place and my interests changed where I enjoyed my time training (in the gym), learning more about myself and discovering what I enjoyed doing in life. I am now a golf coach and a Personal Trainer where I taught in Bristol. As well as this I love doing Shintaido, this is a wonderful practice to intertwine with golf, fitness, and my daily life. In the UK both my instructors were Nagako Cooper and Masashi Minagawa. I have been doing Shintaido for a year. And now I’m traveling around the world working with children and encouraging them to experience this new and exciting body movement! My website is oscarsharpe.com where you can learn a little more about me.
Reaching up!
Stephanie – I was born in France and my passion for singing took me to different parts of the world as a performer until I realized the importance and the power of sounds. I moved to the UK to train to become a voice facilitator with the founder of The Naked Voice Chloe Goodchild. This is when I started to practice Shintaido with Masashi Minagawa then with Nagako Cooper. After I graduated as a voice facilitator I found my way working with children combining singing, music, dancing and Shintaido. Now we are traveling around Latin America singing and empowering children to be who they want to be. You can follow us on my website: www.letitsound.co
Q. How did you get started teaching Shintaido to children? The setting is clearly a school. Are one or both of you teachers at the school? A. Oscar was introduced to Shintaido through Stephanie in the beginning of 2017. Nagako has been my instructor and Masashi has been my Master where I have been having sessions with both of them since. Stephanie has been working in schools for over 10 years and founded Let it Sound for children in 2016 including Shintaido and sounds. The Waldorf Steiner School called ‘La Escuela Caracol’ in Guatemala accepted to have us for four weeks to run our program of Shintaido and sounds: in parallel teaching English classes and Personal training by Oscar. We were doing this together and separately to primary school children and adults.
Jumping!
Q. Did you encounter any difficulties teaching Shintaido to children? If so, what were they? A. This is something completely new for children, as a result they can get really excited or quite shy. As you can imagine this can be challenging at times. However this is a great learning for the children and us.
Q. Do you think any of your young students will keep up with the practice? A. It will be challenging for children to keep up a Shintaido practice because they don’t have someone there for support. However there were a number of exercises which were memorable due to the amount of fun they had. We feel very confident that this will remain in their memory for a long time.
Q. How, if at all, did the children relate to some of the larger philosophical concepts behind the movements of Shintaido? Did you even bring them up, or did you just let the kids enjoy the freedom of the movements? A. Before we start the movements we explain what they mean and the energy behind the practice. Stephanie has rearranged some of the exercises adapted for the children – this is done in a fun, light and meaningful manner. We show the movements to the children supporting them along the way, but also feel it’s important that we take a step back so they can learn and explore themselves.
Q. Do you ever come to the United States? What are your plans for yourselves for the future? Are you both on the path to becoming Shintaido instructors? A. We are not sure what the future will bring. Right now we are in Costa Rica and living each week as it comes. We intend to go to Columbia in a few months time and gradually make our way south. As for The States, if there is an invitation why not?
In the past we were both thinking of becoming Shintaido instructors, however with the journey we are on this is on hold.
Q. I see that Stephanie has posted other videos with the children in them. Is film-making your profession? A. Videos are a great way to share what we do. I (Stephanie) love recording children in action, they love being in the videos and I just love making them. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do 🙂
The conference was attended by 25 people from around the world with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Examples of the presenters include: an anthropologist presenting on the Mi’kmaq of eastern Canada and their Funeral Feasts; a social worker presenting on bereavement and the Malay Muslims; a PhD candidate in Russian Literature presenting on The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy; a Portuguese Literature Professor presenting on Old Age in Jean-Rhys’s later texts; and an ethicist from the UK presenting on Presumed Consent for Organ Donation in England. Other examples are: a Canadian psychologist and his social worker wife presenting reflections from their Death and Dying Group, an Australian ICU physician presenting on advance care planning, an American Chaplain speaking on spiritual care counselling, and an English artist presenting on her use of cloth and textiles as a metaphor for conveying grief and loss.
Conference Attendees
I taught the five movements of Tenshingoso with return demonstrations by the group. The group expressed appreciation for the sensation of opening the body, using the voice and the sense of harmony created as the group did the movements together. We discussed the study of the Cycle of Life with the individual movements as well as the study over a lifetime. As I concluded my teaching and the group entered the final “UM”, the local church clock bell rang 12 times – a special moment at the ending! The group also requested that I lead them again in Tenshingoso at the closing ceremony of the two-day conference.
Welcome to the revised Shintaido of America (SoA) website! As part of this transition of the website to a new format, SoA’s Body Dialogue newsletter is becoming a blog. Anyone may post an entry at any time, by sending material to newsletter@shintaido.org. The Body Dialogue editor will review material and post all appropriate entries. Body Dialogue is now a real-time on-line publication with fresh articles and information on an ongoing basis. Please submit poems, pictures, articles, essays, anything we can post electronically, to newsletter@shintaido.org.
