Sarasota Aikikai 50 Year Anniversary Celebration!

Name: Sarasota Aikikai 50 Year Anniversary Celebration!
Start: 2025-03-07T18:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-03-09T11:00:00-05:00
Location: Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College

Schedule

Fri, 07 Mar, 2025 at 06:00 pm to Sun, 09 Mar, 2025 at 11:00 am

UTC-05:00

Location

Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College | Sarasota, FL

Sarasota Aikikai will celebrate it’s 50 year anniversary at a very special seminar March 7-9, 2025. This will also coincide with the celebration of Sensei’s 88th birthday on that Friday, March 7th.
Saotome Sensei and Ikeda Sensei are both coming, they told me they are excited to see all their friends from the old days together once again. Joining them are two more senior instructors from the early Sarasota days: John Messores Sensei and Dan Messisco Sensei.
For those who can make it to town a day early, we will also have special pre-seminar classes in the Sarasota Dojo (https://maps.app.goo.gl/kpbRhoa44a91vxxG8) on Thursday night, taught by Melissa Bell and Zach White. Although this is not the first location that Sensei came to in 1975, it is the location that has lasted the longest – Frank Bell established the present location of the Sarasota Aikikai 30 years ago in 1995, and it has been here ever since! The original Princeton Street Dojo is a mere four blocks away, so if there is interest, we may walk over and see it.
The seminar itself will be held at the gorgeous Sarasota Art Museum (https://maps.app.goo.gl/TiBHSj98mosR2pTcA) for Friday and Saturday classes. Friday night social will be held at a local favorite spot, just a few blocks from the seminar venue. The banquet will be Saturday night at our fabulous local Churrasco restaurant/Brazilian steakhouse, (vegetarian and gluten free options are included). And because everyone remembers those iconic early photos of Sensei on the Sarasota beaches, we will train Sunday morning on the sands of that beach! There will be plenty of time for photo ops too ;) The schedule wraps with Sunday brunch after class.
Registration is now open! I hope you will join us: https://form.jotform.com/250244369334153

The Schedule:
Thursday 6:00 - 8:00pm: Pre-seminar class at the Sarasota Aikikai with dojo instructors
Friday: Seminar Class 5:30 - 7:30pm at SAM (Sarasota Art Museum), Friday night social 8:00 - 10:00pm
Saturday: Seminar Class at SAM 10:00 - noon and 2:30 - 4:30pm, Banquet 7:30 - 9:30pm
Sunday: Seminar Class at the beach 9:30 - 11:30am followed by brunch