I wanted to thank a number of people for the leads they fed me and say something of what I brought out of my encounter with them and then fed into Freeform Aikido.

• John Ferris – my first aikido teacher. Artistry, humour and his acknowlegment of, and respect to the ineffable. ( And his ability to articulate with sweeping cultural reference.) He highlighted the “implicit” nature of the relationship. I also deeply valued his apparent disinterest in grading.
• Paul Smith for his lived physicallity and his willingness to go out on a limb. He enlivened me to knees and ankles!
• Inaba Sensei. From him I took his encouragement to find out what was important to us individually, to experiment and discover for ourselves. I liked his willingness to simplify and his ability to strip away the extraneous.
• Sasada Sensei. Creativity in experiment and his liberating quietness on what ever we should make of our discoveries. He evoked in me a strong desire to experience the dojo as an artists studio or laboratory.
• Endo Sensei. His emphasis on relationship. The liberation I felt in hearing him say “my aikido is not a martial art”.
• Kristin Hestad. For her encouragement to attend to my own experience and her discouragement of my habit to look to historical reference for academic support of my ideas…!
• Lynne Jacobs.

thanks for everything!

I will continue to add to and embellish this list….