Aikido Festival “White Nights – 2009”
XVIII-th traditional international Aikido festival “White Nights – 2009” took place in St Petersburg on June 19-21, 2009.
Aikido festival “White Nights – 2009” was held under the aegis of the Russian Union of Martial Arts and the National Aikido Council of Russia, under support of the International Euro-Asian Aikido Federation and the St Petersburg Aikido Federation in the framework of “Health of Nation” state program. This year the festival was led by Nobuyoshi Tamura sensei, 8-th Dan Aikikai, Hombu Dojo official representative for Europe. The seminars led by Stephane Benedetti, 6-th Dan Aikikai, Mutokukai Europa President, and technical consultants of FFAB (Federation Francaise d’Aikido et de Budo) Jeacques Bonemaison, 7-th Dan Aikikai, and Henry Avril (6-th Dan Aikikai) have been conducted during the festival.
Representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belorussia, Spain, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Russia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, France and Japan attended the festival.
On June 20 Sergey Kirienko, Co-Chairman of the Russian Union of Martial Arts, President of the National Aikido Council of Russia, welcomed participants of the festival. Mr. Kirienko met and had a talk with Tamura sensei, held a meeting with representatives of Russian and foreign Aikido federations.
The festival was followed by the Dan grading examination. 4 people have been awarded the 1-st Dan, 7 people - the 2-nd Dan, 1 festival participant - the 4-th Dan.
The working meetings, night Neva boat trip took place during the festival. The festival participants enjoyed chances for communication with Aikido masters in easy and free atmosphere, asked masters their questions, took photos, made friendly contacts between each other and expressed their gratitude to the masters.
This news item is from Aikido.ru (http://en.aikido.ru/news.php?extend.1)
Posted by Irina, 24.10.2009 - 13:18:50