Date & Time: Every Thursday 6:30 pm to 7:45pm
Class Fee: $25 for Adults / $20 for Students
Five tickets (expired in three months): $100 (Adult) / $80 (Student)
Initiation fee : $25 (First time only - the fee covers administrative costs and equipment such as wooden sword)
Trial class: $10 for 30 minutes with prior registration
What is Iaido?
Iaido is a form of modern budo (way of the warrior) that is based on the traditional sword techniques of the samurai, who ruled Japan during the Tokugawa Period from 1603 to 1868.
The essence of iaido is to draw the sword, defeat your opponent and re-sheathe the sword. All of iaido practice consists of kata for both solo practitioner and for partners (using wooden swords).
Iaido evolved as a safe means for learning sword techniques. As such, it is very polite and intended to cool, rather than arouse, emotion.
As the Tokugawa period progressed, iaido evolved to become a means of attaining a state of meditative mindfulness and aesthetic expression, all the while retaining its deadly practicality.
About Instructor
Deborah Klens-Bigman has studied iaido for over 25 years. Her original teacher was Otani Yoshiteru, an Osaka native and descendant of the samurai class who moved to New York after World War II, with whom she studied Muso Shinden Ryu iaido until his death in 2004.
She holds dan (black belt) rankings in three styles of iaido, and has studied other weapon arts, including jodo (stick), kyudo (bow) and naginata (glaive).
She also spent several years studying modern fencing and rapier and dagger fight choreography.
Deborah studies Japanese classical dance with Shihan Fujima Nishiki-No (Helen Moss).
She is the chief instructor of Iaikai dojo and has published numerous articles on dance and Japanese swordsmanship and their relationships to traditional aesthetics.
She holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University.
She is married to artist Vernon Bigman and lives in the Bronx, NY, with four cats who definitely own the place.