Shibui: simple, calm, and unforced. An aikido learned and enacted with clarity, connection and peace; with attention to form, line, spirals and nuance. More on Shibui...

Aikido always seeks to move skillfully within conflict respecting the changing energies, thereby creating harmonious resolution.

We are devoted to teaching new students this wondrous martial art. The beauty and power of aikido is available to everyone coming with curiosity and interest. Join us!

Fees:

Per Class: $20

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Pay Family Plan $160:
(per month)

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Why study the Art of Shibui Aikido?

Aikido is excellent for developing and maintaining your flexibility, posture, balance, core strength, and teaches you how to fall safely (ukemi) to prevent injuries.

We present Aikido as an embodied transformative practice, as a path for expanding bodymind consciousness and experiencing a natural connection with everything. The aikido we teach is expansive, always growing, learning, and revolutionary in that it reaches beyond our usual or habitual ways of knowing and being.

Aikido training is great for discovering proper breathing technique, which improves stamina, maintains your cardiovascular health and calms the mind.

Learn how to blend and redirect an attacker's energy rather than clashing with it, thereby gaining more confidence (with attackers of all sizes and shapes!)

Aikido excels in stress relief, improving your spatial awareness, and teaching peaceful conflict resolution inside and outside the dojo.

The Shibui Dojo offer’s training in empty-hand throws, joint locks, pins, as well as traditional aikido weapons like the jo (staff) and bokken (wooden sword).

Why study Ki Development?

Essential to Aikido are the practices and capacities cultivated in Ki Development.

Learning Ki Breathing meditation to grow the stability of one's center and learn how to stabilize the focus of our awareness.

Learn Ki Testing and Ki Exercises to deepen our ability to choose unifying mind and body as we respond to challenges.

Directly experience that we are stronger when relaxed. We have a beneficial influence on those around us when we are present, embodied and relaxed.

Learn to naturally extend ki without adding tension or excess doing.

And learn how to positively shift our state of mind to produce different results in aikido and life.

Philip Riffe, Godan - Instructor

In 1991, Philip Riffe, walked into a Shin-Budo Kai dojo in Austin, Texas and saw his first Aikido class. It was love at first sight. Philip moved to Durango in 2015 to join Durango Shin-Budo Kai. He has taught kids' classes, an Introduction to Aikido class, and general aikido. Philip is currently SBK Godan, 5th-degree black belt. Below is Philip with Imaizumi Sensei, in the mid 2000s.

Steve Self, Yondan - Instructor

Steve Self, currently SBK Yondan, 4th-degree black belt, began his study of aikido in the Bay Area of California in 1979. He practiced a bit in the Hudson Valley of New York in the 80s, in San Francisco, and more consistently in Mill Valley with Richard Strozzi Heckler, Wendy Palmer and George Leonard Senseis in the late 80s and early 90s. He resumed practice in Durango in 2001. He co-founded Durango Shin-Budo Kai Dojo and the first few years hosted practice in his home dojo. He studied with Dr. David Shaner Sensei and Chris Curtis Sensei both 8th dan of the Ki Society on and off for the last 12 years, and attended World Camp in Japan, a week long aikido intensive by the Ki Society. Steve guides Ki Development Class and Aikido with Ki classes. He has been training and teaching aikido for over 47 years. Below is Shaner Sensei, Steve Self and Curtis Sensei in Japan World Camp 2007.

John Partenope, Shodan - Asst. Instructor

John Partenope, currently SBK Shodan,1st-degree black belt, began his study of aikido in Durango, Colorado in 2010 under the tutelage of Mark Winkworth Sensei, Steve Self Sensei, and Michael Wilkinson Sensei. He enjoys practicing weapons kata that include the jo & bokken along with the many Aikido techniques of Shin-Budo Kai Aikido. What draws John to Aikido is the continual and challenging training of keeping a calm mind-body unification while under attack. Below is John and Imaizumi Sensei, around 2010.

Nate Brush, Shodan - Asst. Instructor

Nate Brush, currently SBK Shodan, 1st-degree blackbelt, began practicing in 2014 under the tutelage of Mark Winkworth Sensei, Steve Self Sensei, and Michael Wilkinson Sensei. The "do," or way, of aikido is a path that constantly challenges him to grow technically and spiritually. His joy in practice is growth and fostering growth in others. Above is Nate and Imaizumi Sensei, 2024.

Coming from town, drive south on Camino Del Rio,
turn left at the Walmart stop light, on Dominguez Dr.
Turn right at the huge car dealership on to Carbon Junction.
Drive south past Basin Coop and look to the left for Deitz Market.
Immediately after Deitz, turn left into a slightly uphill parking area.
There is a large sign about cranes... You are in the right place. The dojo is on the left.

Coming from the south or east on Hwy 160... After passing the Wilson Gulch interchange the highway curves to the right toward Durango... past Enterprise Car Rental, and right adter the stop light by Home Depot, look for an unmarked exit to the right, and the dojo is right before Deitz market. If you miss this exit take the next one mentioned above.

Contact Us:

    Philip Riffe: email

    Steve Self: email