"If you want to spread Aikido and keep it going into the future, focus on its most fundamental goals: harmony between people and cultivating the heart of love. Transcend winning and losing as you polish your technique. Study Aikido together, learn from each other, and carry Aikido forward in the best possible direction." – Motomichi Anno Sensei, chief instructor, Kumano Juku Dojo, Shingu, Japan.
Carry Aikido Forward is the inspiring record of the 17th annual Aikido Summer Retreat in Santa Cruz, California. Teachers and students from over 50 dojos joined together for five days in July 2010 to train intensively, to celebrate a sense of community with others on the path of Aikido, and to strengthen a collective resolve to carry the teachings of the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba Osensei, forward into the future.
Featuring Motomichi Anno Sensei, 8th Dan Shihan, a direct student of the founder of Aikido. Carry Aikido Forward also contains extensive footage of the three senior American Aikido instructors who co-taught with Anno Sensei to create the 2010 Summer Retreat: Mary Heiny Sensei, 6th Dan (Seattle, Washington), Linda Holiday Sensei, 6th Dan (chief instructor, Aikido of Santa Cruz), and Jack Wada Sensei, 6th Dan (chief instructor, Aikido of San Jose).
Central to the focus of the 2010 retreat was the question of how the philosophy of harmony expounded by the founder of Aikido, and the physical techniques which express and cultivate this harmony, can be transmitted to successive generations of Aikidoists in the future. This DVD was shot and edited with great care and attention to the quality of its audio, video, and storytelling.
Length: 2 hours & 36 minutes
Publication date: 2011
