Aikido@NJIT is pleased to announce the Bond Street 30th Anniversary Alumni Road Show Seminar Series with Ken Nisson Sensei and Ellis Amdur Sensei, teaching at NJIT's Zoom & Estelle Fleischer Gymnasium from 5:30-7:30 on May 27th and June 2nd, respectively.
Amdur Sensei has indicated an intention to focus his class on June 2nd on KOSHI-NAGE, allowing for a range of ukemi skill levels.
Nisson Sensei tends to take a more intuitive approach to teaching, and those of us who haven't seen him since he moved out to California are looking forward to see what he'll dig out of his bag of tricks on May 27th.
Both Ken and Ellis played key roles in the early history of Bond Street, and were closely associated with Terry Dobson during the formative period of aikido's dissemination throughout the United States. Each has his own unique perspective on the questions of how and why we practice aikido, and each brings a wealth of experience in other areas to his practice and teaching.
Space for these seminars is limited and pre-registration is required. A $20 donation to cover travel expenses for our guests is requested. Information regarding aikido@njit, including travel directions by both car and public transit, may be found at:
aikido@njit.edu
for further information or to pre-register, send mail to:
aikido@njit.edu
Biographical Information for both Instructors Follows
Ken Nisson Sensei
Ken Nisson began Judo training in 1958. In 1961, while in the Air Force Reserve, he assisted in teaching the Strategic Air Command Judo Team. After leaving military duty, in 1964, Ken began Aikido training under Koichi Tohei, Sensei.
Awarded shodan by Yoshimitsu Yamada Sensei in 1967, Ken subsequently founded the first dojo in Rockland County, New York near an intentional avant-garde arts community known as The Land.
In the summer of 1973, along with Terry Dobson, Sensei, Ken co-founded Aikido of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, as well as Bond Street Dojo, on the Lower East Side of New York City.
From 1980 until 2001, Ken's base of operations moved back and forth between Burlington and NYC and he taught regularly in both dojo; between 1990 and 2001, he also taught regularly at Kokumo Dojo (formerly Palisades Aikido Club/Aikido of the Hudson Valley), the oldest dojo in continuous operation in Rockland County.
In 2001, Ken moved back to Modesto, California. He now conducts seminars around the country as well as maintaining a regular teaching schedule at Aikido of Modesto and a number of other schools in the surrounding region.
Ellis Amdur Sensei
Ellis Amdur has practiced aikido for approximately 30 years, thirteen of them in Japan. He studied most intensely with Terry Dobson, Yoshio Kuroiwa and Yasunori Kuwamori.
He is also a licensed instructor in two koryu (classical Japanese martial traditions), the Araki Ryu and the Toda-ha Buko Ryu.
He was a contributing editor of Aikido Journal, and his articles on the subtle integration of martial arts in ordinary life were published in book form as
Dueling with Osensei: Grappling with the Myth of the Warrior-Sage. His second book, a collection of technical, historical and analytical articles on koryu arts titled
Old School: Essays on Japanese Martial Traditions, was published earlier this year.
Ellis offers seminars in aikido throughout the United States. He sees his role as attempting to offer to any aikido school a new and different perspective on aikido training from the one they are currently practicing. Through this different perspective, the students can return to their mainstay practice renewed.
He has become well known for workshops focusing on the essence of ukemi (receiving or taking falls), atemi (striking techniques within classical aikido movement), and kaeshi-waza (counters to techniques).
