1st Dojo Movie Night! – by Gerard Enriquez

In early September, we held our first Dojo Movie Night event. The purpose of movie night is to help build a sense of community within the dojo. To us. a dojo is more than the building that we train in, a dojo is the community of people that we train with.

When we train, we must devote all our concentration to our practice. I believe that there should be no irrelevant chatter when training.   The only time we get to communicate is in between classes, which only lasts a few moments.

Movie night will help facilitate bonding between students, and help students learn more about each other.

A good dojo requires more than just good instructors. The students need to come together to make the dojo alive. Our goal is that movie night (and other dojo social events) will foster friendship between students/family/and friends.  These bonds are what will keep the dojo together as well as help the dojo to grow.

We will host this event every 2-3 months. We will also have nights for the general membership students which will be separate from the children’s class night.

Although we practice a martial art, Aikido is the art of peace. Peaceful interaction is a lesson that may be just as important as a lesson in self-defense.

We have this open to all members and their immediate family and friends. However, we only show kid friendly movies. As the events evolve, we will plan to show movies more appropriate for adult audiences (separate from Kid’s movie night).