Nominations for SOA Board members are now open. A SOA Board member works with other board members and SOA officers to help fulfill the mission of supporting keiko and instructors in the US and Canada.
What are some of the things a board members have done?
A sub-committee of the SOA Board worked with an amazing marketing/branding professional, Robert Friedman. They devised a fresh and inventive way to describe Shintaido.
With this revitalized way to think of Shintaido as “Opening to Life”, the teachers group led by Lee Seaman and Nancy Billias designed a five-week ‘soft hand’ curriculum for beginners which is designed to be conducted over Zoom. Board members contributed to articles and worked with Body Dialogue editor Jim Sterling for our Body Dialogue. The Shintaido YouTube Channel now offers new videos every few weeks led by Sarah Baker, who works with the SOA Board and officers.
SOA board members set the strategy for SOA, establish the annual budget to accomplish these strategies while also maintaining the infrastructure of a national nonprofit organization.
A person may self-nominate themselves. If nominating another person, please have their agreement before making the nomination.
A board member serves a term of 2 years. The term is from September 2021 to September 2023.
A board member attends 4 board meetings each year and participates in committee work throughout the year.
Nominations close on 24 July 2021and the elections will happen from 1 August to 14 August.
Do you want to join us? Write us a little letter or shoot a short video about you and your motivation to become the Shintaido of America board member.
The current members of the Board from September 2019 to 2021 are Nancy Billias, elected voting member Connie Borden, elected voting member David Franklin, elected voting member Herve Hofstetter, elected voting member Brad Larson, elected voting member
We have two permanent SOA Board members H. F. Ito, lifetime member Michael Thompson, lifetime member
When the idea of dissolving the International Shintaido NPO was first proposed, I was strongly against it. For 13 years as a board member of ISC and then IS, I worked hard to establish a legally incorporated organization. Further, I spent a year on another committee that wrote the bylaws for IS. After all this, I couldn’t imagine giving up on an ideal and such a long-held goal. But then I considered the situation from a longer and wider historical perspective.
Lee Oderman with his family
Instead of seeing this moment as a setback, I began to see it as a stage of transition away from an old model, the iemoto system of leadership, and toward something more appropriate. The iemoto system is the way traditional Japanese cultural schools, including martial arts schools, handled succession of leadership. When a master died or ended his or her career, a new individual would be chosen to carry on and further the legacy. This system may have worked well in feudal times, but in modern times, it has not shown a lot of success – at least not for martial artists. Think of aikido or the various schools of karate. Succession at these schools has not gone smoothly. When a master has died or given up control, the school has divided and the tradition weakened. As far as I can tell, no organization like ours has succeeded in making this transition without splitting apart and weakening the stream of knowledge.
Shin Aoki teaching in Italy
We have been traveling this path of transition away from the old system for some years now, and we are discovering that such change doesn’t come as an event but as a process, and a longer and harder process than we had imagined. One main cause of our difficulty is that within Shintaido we maintain elements of pre-modern Japanese culture. Besides some superficial cultural traces like Japanese clothing and Japanese vocabulary, we have some important, deep and influential traditions, like sempai/kohai relationships and the students’ deep devotion and loyalty to a main teacher, whom we burden with great responsibilities and expectations, even beyond the walls of the dojo.
These ancient Japanese cultural elements rely on conditions that don’t normally exist in Western student-teacher relationships. [They don’t fit comfortably in modern culture anywhere, for that matter, arguably not even in Japan.] Over the last six years or so, we have been trying to knit these traditional Japanese elements into a way of self-organizing that embraces democratic principles. Not surprisingly, we are finding that hard to do: For some things we expect top-down leadership, for some we expect grassroots initiative, for some we expect the doshu to delicately indicate which way to go. It is confusing, sometimes frustrating, and at times conflicting for sempai and kohai alike.
It can be hard going, but for an “avant garde” martial art, that was founded in principles and ideals both Eastern and Western, in which the individual is valued as much as the group, we can neither return to a feudal approach to leadership, nor can we lock down another way of organizing ourselves that doesn’t work or feel relevant to so many in the group. Instead, we can respond to the new conditions and adapt. Just as our “new” martial art evolves with the demands of the times, so can its approach to organization and leadership.
It is unlikely that we will figure all this out on the first try, and maybe not on the second or third. We will have to revise and revise as we go. Like Jim Sterling said when ITEC and the Board met in March to discuss the way forward, we will wipe away the mandala and make a new one.
Without an individual patriarchal/matriarchal leader to tell us what to do, how we make decisions and organize will continue to be a process. The process will require us to voice our points of view to one another. The process will show us our differences, and it is valuable and important that it do so.
We can embrace these moments of opposing views as opportunities to practice our art. Shintaido shows us how to deal with differences and deal with the discomfort, regardless of the structure by which we do it. Shintaido life is not a life without differences with others. A life in Shintaido is rather a life equipped to deal with the differences, even conflicts, and to turn them into opportunities for making things better for everyone. And leading up to this moment, as we have struggled and experienced occasional disagreement, this process of change has brought us closer together, and we are now communicating better than ever.
Though I have come to believe that the IS NPO based in France should be dissolved to make way for the next phase or our organization, I don’t regret the work to create and operate IS as a waste of effort. The organization served a very good purpose: First, it taught us many things we are now finding useful as we refine how to organize ourselves in the future. Second, it held us together all this time. It did so especially through a much greater crisis in 2015 and 2016, when we were actually splitting apart, as we broke with the iemoto system and then struggled to hold together what was left. It was an emotional and divisive time; people were angry with each other and the future of Shintaido itself seemed at risk. But in this crisis we found opportunity to overcome differences. Finding agreement to create a new organization and attempting to make it support a unified curriculum and exam system brought us closer together than we were before.
I believe the next phase will bring us even closer together as we continue to make Shintaido a vital, strong and internationally unified stream of learning that brings joy and light to people well into the future.
See you in keiko and at exams!
Lee Ordeman served on the boards of the ISC and IS from 2008 until this spring. He also helped write the IS bylaws and code of ethics. He started practicing Shintaido 34 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying with Michael Thompson and David Franklin. In 1990 he moved to Tokyo, where he became an instructor and studied with Hiroyuki Aoki, Mitsuru Okada, and H.F. Ito during his regular visits to Japan. Lee moved back to the U.S. in 2000 and since then has led classes in Baltimore and Washington, DC. He is also a regular guest instructor at El Haddawi, a school of body movement in Bavaria, Germany.
Please take a look at the first of what I hope will be a series of conversations with Shintaido instructors and practitioners. We want to learn more about each other’s Shintaido experience, as well as get to know a bit about the personal and professional life of our community members.
Our first conversation is with Connie Borden.
Connie has been teaching and practicing Shintaido since 1984. She is a General Instructor, the President of Shintaido of America and Chairperson of the Shintaido International Technical Examination Committee. I’m sure many of you have studied with her, attended workshops she has organized or been in meetings that she has led.
Connie’s professional life as an RN and Nurse Practitioner has given her many insights into the world of healing and caregiving. She has spent the last 27 years focusing on hospice and palliative care, counselling patients and their families who are facing serious illness and at times, the end of their lives.
I hope you enjoy this conversation on our SOA YouTube Channel.
an online / offline Shintaido course that takes 15 minutes per day for 21 days Starting Sunday April 25, 2021 Details of the program and registration here
Personally, I don’t like Zoom meetings much. Doing exercise through Zoom is slightly less bad than a meeting, but it still lacks something. As I mentioned in a previous Body Dialogue article, there are some experiences we can only access when we are physically in the same space together. Those kinds of experiences cannot happen through the Internet.
Rather than trying to imitate or simulate those face-to-face experiences, which would be like banging my head against a brick wall, I decided to design an online Shintaido course with a different objective: to take as little time as possible online to supply participants with a program that they can “unpack” and later practice offline as a solo practice. That’s why I came up with the format “21 days, 15 minutes per day.”
In real life, Shintaido classes are typically 90 minutes or two hours long and people sometimes say they don’t have time to attend. It can be high bar for beginners. When we practice online, even a practice as short as 45 minutes may feel a bit tiring rather than invigorating because of the various problematic effects of video conferencing on the eyes and brain, a phenomenon that’s been labeled “Zoom fatigue.” (There’s an excellent National Geographic article explaining the reasons for Zoom fatigue here).
But what about a 15-minute class? If you were (or are) a complete novice, would you be more likely to give Shintaido a try if the class only took 15 minutes? Avoiding “Zoom fatigue” is only one of the reasons I came up with the format of 15 minutes per day for 21 days. Another reason is to encourage regular daily practice, and this requires forming a new habit. It’s not scientifically clear how long it takes to form a new habit, but after I intuitively chose 21 days, I found out that many experts recommend this. In fact, there is something called “the 21/90 rule,” a rule of thumb that if you commit to a goal for 21 consecutive days, it can become a habit; and if you continue your habit for another 90 days, it can become a permanent lifestyle change.
Excerpt from David Franklin’s hybrid Shintaido coursee
With this in mind, the structure of the course is meant to minimize the amount of time that participants spend online and maximize the habit of practicing alone every day, even if just for a few minutes. Solo practice is very empowering, especially if you learn flexible methods that allow you to practice outdoors when possible or indoors as needed. It helps you become independent and internally stabilized. Nobody can exclude you from it, nobody can unplug it, it doesn’t matter if the power goes out or what the weather is outside, and even if you’re very busy, you just need minimum 15 minutes per day and about three square meters of space.
An analogy for this process is when you receive a compressed file through the Internet, for example. Before sending, the other person’s computer has to do some work to make the file smaller (so it uses less memory or data). That’s similar to my work of preparing the course and the 1st week of instructional videos. Then the compressed (smaller) file gets sent through the “thin pipe” of the Internet connection, which is analogous to the livestream part of the workshop, which is limited to 15 minutes per day. Finally, after you download the file into your computer, your computer has to decompress the file before you can use it. This corresponds to the last week of the workshop, when you do the work of solo practice to integrate the knowledge into your movement.
The course is also designed to be accessible for people in a wide range of physical conditions, so just as you can choose the level of spiciness when you order Indian food for example, there are variations of techniques that I call “mild,” “medium,” or “intensive” that each participant can choose from according to their taste.
Excerpt no. 2 from David Franklin’s hybrid Shintaido course
Another challenge of live-streamed practice (such as Zoom) is that when learning new material, it’s difficult to catch many details on a livestream. This can be due to poor picture quality, unreliable Internet connection, poor audio etc., none of which can easily be solved on the spot. The quality of sound and picture is usually better on pre-recorded online videos (such as Vimeo or YouTube) than on live-streamed videos. Pre-recorded videos also give us the chance to pause, to watch again, to focus on the parts that we want to pay more attention to. I’ve addressed that problem by using pre-recorded online instructional videos as part of the course.
An additional advantage of using instructional videos before the live-streamed Zoom classes is that when you “arrive” at the live-streamed part of the workshop, you can concentrate on following along with the rhythm. You don’t need to concentrate as much on the details of the techniques because you’ve already learned these details through the instructional videos. And this advantage will also apply as we return to having in-person practices.
Therefore, the course focuses on developing some of the basic movement principles of Shintaido: yoki-tai vs. kaiho-tai, kiri-komi vs. kiri-harai (if you are new to Shintaido and don’t know these Japanese terms yet, no worries! You’ll learn them step-by-step during the course). There are also techniques that are not unique to Shintaido, but are essential, such as using the ulnar (pinkie) edge of the arm to unify movement, vertical alignment, long focus, etc. Practicing these fundamental elements regularly will give you a foundation that will serve you well in any Shintaido class and at every level of experience.
So in the schedule, you’ll see that the first week of the course consists of practicing along with instructional videos that I’m creating specifically for this course — seven of them, one for each day of the 1st week of the course.
During the second week, groups will meet online and practice together. To accommodate people in different time zones, I’m offering two times each day:
6:45am CEST / 12:45am EDT / 9:45pm PDT
6:45pm CEST / 12:45pm EDT / 9:45am PDT
The third week of the course is when you commit to independent solo practice of 15 minutes per day with no videos, livestreams or devices for seven more days. Finally, there is an optional feedback and discussion meeting to be held online on the last day of the third week, May 16th.
Finally, I’d like to offer this course as a tool that instructors or group leaders can use. If you’re familiar with Shintaido, you’ll see there isn’t much original about the movement techniques that I’ll teach in the course. But I’ve tried to arrange Shintaido techniques in a way that packs a lot of content into a short amount of time and a small space (sort of like a bonsai tree). If you’re a Shintaido instructor or group leader, feel free to use this course as an open-source tool. You can offer this course to your students or friends and after they complete Week 1 (the instructional videos), you can teach Week 2 yourself, either online or in person (according to local conditions), and offer your own interpretation.
New for Shintaido in 2021 was PacShin Kangeiko via Zoom. PacShin offered three keiko on three separate days via Zoom so that Shintaido practitioners could deepen their study during this time of COVID pandemic. Thirty-seven people studied over the course of three days across two weekends—January 16, 17, and 23, 2021. Participants attended from the San Francisco Bay Area, the East Coast of the USA, the UK, Belgium, France, Italy, and the Czech Republic. The Kangeiko theme was “Opening to Life.”
Gianni Rossi, Shintaido General Instructor from Italy, and Margaret Guay, Shintaido Instructor from Shintaido Northeast, taught open-hand and Bokuto Shintaido techniques. Shin Aoki, Shintaido Senior Instructor, served as Director of Instruction. Shin, Cheryl Williams, and Derk Richardson were the organizers and Gasshuku managers. Sarah Baker edited all the Zoom recordings.
PanShin instructors Gianni Rossi (left) and Margaret Guay (right)
Derk opened Kangeiko with a poem. As a reflection on the theme, “Opening to Life,” he read this poem by Mary Oliver:
I DON’T WANT TO LIVE A SMALL LIFE
I don’t want to live a small life. Open your eyes, open your hands. I have just come from the berry fields, the sun kissing me with its golden mouth all the way (open your hands) and the wind winged clouds following along thinking perhaps I might feed them, but no I carry these heart-shapes only to you. Look how many how small but so sweet and maybe the last gift I will ever bring to anyone in this world of hope and risk, so do. Look at me. Open your life, open your hands.
Gianni and Margaret co-taught all three keiko, leading us remotely from hundreds and thousands of miles away, yet with striking intimacy. In her teaching, Margaret combined her study of Body-Mind Centering with Shintaido, taking the idea of “opening” down to the cellular level of human development, and encouraging us to explore our body movements through all of our senses, especially while rolling on the floor! During the first keiko, she reminded us of the heart-mind connection as she demonstrated holding a ball in front of her chest, while resting her head on the ball.
During the second keiko, she led us through movements of the hand, directing our attention to how our fingers folded and unfolded, opened and closed, as we made fists, teaching about the evolution of our grip, and making the connection to how we do Tsuki. During the final keiko, Margaret had us reach through the windows of our computer, tablet, and phone screens and feel the connection with all the other Zoom participants.
Margaret Guay while teaching
Gianni taught both open-hand Shintaido and Bokuto, leading the first keiko’s extensive warmups with Bokuto. During the second keiko, he led in Eiko Dai, urging us to “go far, far, far” while running in place in our confined spaces, and he asked us to unmute ourselves so we could hear one another. The holding a “virtual” sword vertically, we reached out into the world and brought it back into our bodies, then we practiced with our actual swords. The keiko also included mochikai-e, receiving Tsuki with wakame, and more. During his closing keiko he encouraged to “fly” around our rooms with multi-directional cutting, and transported us back through time and space to a keiko he recalled with Master Instructor Masashi Minagawa in Italy, 12 or 15 years ago, taking us to the origins of Diamond Eight Cut. As Gianni “attacked” us with the various Diamond Eight cuts, we received on our side of our screens with wakame.
With Margaret leading, we finished with a meditative kata, originally shared by Michael Thompson, that brought together elements of Diamond Eight Cut and Ten-Point meditation, allowing us to settle into a deep contemplative space together through our bodies.
During the weekdays, four supplementary keiko were offered to all participants. Connie Borden taught two keiko focusing on Taimyo No Kata Part I and one keiko practicing Taimyo Part III. Bela Breslau’s keiko gave us the opportunity to deepen our study and exploration of Tenshingoso.
Opening the second weekend, Derk read the poem “The Guest House” by 13th-century Persian poet Mewlana-Jalaluddin-Rumi:
THE GUEST HOUSE
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes As an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
And as part of the closing ceremony for our weeklong study of “Opening to Life,” Derk read another poem by Mary Oliver:
DON’T HESITATE
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
At the conclusion of each keiko, after a short break, participants were invited to stay online and engage in Q&A sessions with the instructors and open-ended discussions as a group. Although remote practice in separate spaces may not be an ideal way to practice Shintaido, Kangeiko via Zoom allowed Shintaido folks to practice with people they may never have met or hadn’t seen in a long time, and to converse and share our impressions of our experience.
All three of the formal 2021 PacShin Kangeiko keiko can be accessed and watched on the Shintaido of America YouTube channel.
