About NOLA Aikido Martial Arts in New Orleans

An Introduction

NOLA Aikido was founded in the fall of 2007 in the beautiful historic Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans.  We are a group of students of this "art of peace" (one translation of "aikido"), a healing meditative art of awareness and movement which provides practice in much more than just self-defense.  We come to Aikido for a variety of reasons, but all share a commitment to ongoing personal, spiritual, and societal growth through disciplined and joyful practice.  Some call Aikido a form of "meditation in motion", and indeed our dojo is intended to be a place for this.  "Dojo" means "place for practicing a way" (of spiritual and personal growth).  Aikido is one such way.

We who feel inspired by and called to follow this particular path find at NOLA Aikido a place for ongoing personal and inter-personal renewal in a city in the process of renewing and re-inventing itself in the aftermath of the Storms.  We share a commitment to healing and bridging the rifts and barriers which divide us from each other and ultimately from ourselves.  We will go on working to transcend divisions of race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation, and creating a dojo representative of this diverse and magnificent city we live in, with space for anyone and everyone interested in this particular path of (re-discovering) wholeness.

Our logo contains, among other symbols, a sunrise (rather than a sunset!)  This symbolizes the re-birth and revival of our beloved city as well as freshness, a new day for our own bodies, minds, and spirits.  May all the work we do here spread out to touch and heal others like rings on a pond.


Chief Instructor and Lineage

Our chief instructor, Robert Brian Levy Sensei, 3rd Dan (-degree black belt), a native Louisianan, moved back from Sweden in the fall of 2007 to be part of New Orleans' continuing re-birth in part by sharing and helping to spread what he has been so privileged to have received at the hands of his excellent teachers and mentors in Sweden and elsewhere.  Levy Sensei's Aikido training has involved nearly 17 years of sustained consistent practice under many great teachers of various styles of the art, and culminating in five years of intensive study with his main teachers and sources of inspiration, Jorma Lyly Sensei, 5th Dan, and Jan Nevelius Sensei, 6th Dan at Vanadis Aikido Dojo, Mitsu Domoe Aikido Dojo, and Izanami Aikido Dojo in Stockholm, Sweden.  He has also studied extensively with Frank Ostoff Sensei, 5th Dan, from Aikido Zentrum Düsseldorf in Germany.

In addition to its close ties to Vanadis Aikido Dojo, NOLA Aikido Dojo maintains good connections with our shihan (master teachers), with whom Levy Sensei practices on an ongoing basis: Endo Seishiro Shihan, 8th Dan, from Hombu Dojo (Aikido World Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan), and Christian Tissier Shihan, 7th Dan, from Vincennes (Paris), France.  All of these masters practice and teach a relatively gentle, yet powerful, and deeply contact-based Aikido in the tradition of Yamaguchi Seigo Shihan, a close student to Aikido founder Ueshiba Morihei O'Sensei.

Together with our other senior instructors, NOLA Aikido provides its students with well over 50 years of experience in Aikido and related martial arts. 

Additional Influences

In addition, NOLA Aikido is greatly inspired by the martial art of Daito-ryu Aikijujitsu which our instructor has practiced for many years. Daito-ryu Aikijujitsu is one of the roots of Aikido, and a style which Ueshiba O'Sensei trained for years and mastered before going on to create Aikido.  It emphasizes small circles and the use of "aiki" (hard to put into words, but, roughly, "harmonizing energy") to resolve attacks.  Ongoing practice of and research into Daito-ryu Aikijujitsu by Jorma Lyly Sensei (with whom Levy Sensei has also practiced Daito-ryu for several years) with its emphasis on "aiki" and gentle, deep contact, together with Jan Nevelius Sensei's extensive study of the subtle power and healing possibilities of qigong have greatly enhanced the Aikido practiced at Vanadis Aikido Dojo which is spreading in popularity throughout Europe and the rest of the Aikido world.  NOLA Aikido is proud to be a part of this wonderful martial and healing lineage, and to bring this way of peace to New Orleans now.