The Wharton Center will be host to more than 100 top international martial arts performers at 2 p.m. Saturday when “Spirit in Motion - Traditional Okinawan Martial Arts & Dance,” takes the stage.
The event is being coordinated by the Lansing-based North American Beikoku Shido-kan Association.
Many of the world’s best Shido-kan karate masters and Okinawan dancers will demonstrate techniques such as multiple-person contact/self-defense drills and throws, traditional weapons exhibitions and a breaking demonstration that will include breaking baseball bats.
“This event will have two parts,” said Erika Butler, the event’s coordinator and a MSU telecommunication professor. “It is meant to honor some of the greatest karate masters and will also promote the understanding and sharing of ideas.” Okinawan karate is one of the oldest forms of karate that exists today.
Butler and her husband, Kirt Butler, have taught classes at the Original Okinawa Karate Dojo, 2900 Hannah Blvd. for more than 20 years.
Most of the local participants have been practicing four times a week in preparation for Saturday’s event and are excited about meeting students from around the world. They stress the fact that this event is not a competition, but an performance of “the art” of karate.
Seikichi Iha, a Hanshi 9th Dan (9th-degree black belt) is the Beikoku Shido-kan association’s director and owner of Lansing’s Original Okinawa Karate Dojo, 2018 E. Michigan Ave. He is one of the most highly respected Shido-kan karate masters in the world and is also one of only three people in the world who holds a 9th-degree black belt (10th is the highest degree, and only one master holds this honor).
Iha will perform at the event and will be honored for his efforts in promoting the Shorin-Ryu style of karate all over the world. He’s taught karate in Lansing for more than 25 years and is praised by many of his students.
“Sensai Iha is an inspiration to me,” said 7th-degree black belt Kip Barker, a doctor at the Ingham Regional Medical Center in Lansing.
Barker has been practicing at the Okinawan Dojo for more than 30 years and will lead a display of self-defense and offensive techniques at the Wharton event.
“The highlight of this event is that there will be so many highly ranked masters who have been practicing karate their whole lives showing their techniques,” Barker said. “It’s a pretty big deal that the karate organizations from all over the world are paying attention to us locals.”
Barker, who initially started learning karate “for exercise,” added that it’s amazing how the karate masters, some of whom are in their 80s, still practice daily.
“They’re doing stuff (their students) are still trying to do,” Barker said.
Black belt Merian Reiter, a graphic artist for MSU Extension, will perform Bunkai applications of “kata” (blocking, throwing and breaking techniques). She’s studied Shorin-Ryu karate for more than six years and says it helps her “stay focused and in a good mood.”
“This event will show the cooperation, partnership and friendship Sensai Iha stresses,” she said.
“Karate gives you the feeling of confidence. If I can do this, I can do anything. I can stay calm in any situation and control my body and feelings, overcoming my weaknesses and developing personally.”
Dr. Joe Kalikow, a psychologist at St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing who also teaches at the MSU Medical School, will also be performing the kata. He says he enjoys karate because it teaches everyone to get along, and he also has a “brand new extended family of his own choosing.”
