Event Report - 2001 November Church Demo
This is an edited version of the demo report originally posted to the-dojo@yahoogroups.com on Mon, 05 Nov 2001
On Sunday, November 4th, our dojo (Clear Lake/NASA Aikikai) gave a demonstration at a local church festival in Dickinson. This year the church, Queen of Angels, gave us two one-hour time slots - 11:30 and 3:30. Mats were laid out on the concrete drive and duct taped together, and at the morning time various dojo members demonstrated Kung Fu, Karate, Aikido, and Jodo, with Iaido saved for last. Joe and Tim did a very spirited Jodo demonstration in which Joe broke his white oak boken on Tim's jo. Helping me this year with Iaido were Joe, and Jessica (new student). It was done in two parts,-- first a two person form of Mae and Yaegaki using bokutou to help the non martial arts audience understand what was supposed to be going on during the formal solo kata, then the formal demonstration. To start we had a narrator read from a prepared script a brief description, and history of the art, then during the first part the narrator interpreted the two person demonstration for the audience. The second part was a formal demonstration, with opening and closing reishiki, done with no narration; the only sounds being the calling of the technique, the clap, and the sound of the iaitos. The kata demonstrated were Mae, Yaegaki, Ukenagashi, Tsukekomi, Junto sono ichi, Shihotou sono ni, and Zantotstou. It was well received, and no one asked if I was a nun (happened last year).
All in all it was a good demo. The weather this year was much better. Last year it had started drizzling halfway through the demo causing the plastic surfaced mats to be as slick as ice by the time our Iaido demo started.