Aikido students and visitors entering Aikido of Reno’s Peace Dojo on Wells Avenue are warmly greeted by staff members and other aikido practitioners. A long room flanked by offices invites participation in projects like Japanese flower-arranging and calligraphy classes. Tables and chairs are abundant and look oft-used.
An adjacent storefront, connected by a pass-through, is the location of the aikido studio. A stack of wooden cubbies just outside the studio keeps shoes and other small belongings. The entire studio floor is covered by an enormous, soft, pale-green mat. A partial wall of mirrors is to the left of the entrance.
A poster board on an easel near the door announces the Five Peace Challenges of the Peace Dojo:
• The Movement—move to expand peace.
• Survival Challenge—move beyond fear to experience life more fully.
• Conflict Transformation—move an enemy to an ally.
• Martial Art of Abundant Peace—practice an art that brings peace to you and others.
• Art Expressions—create art and gift it to others.
On a Tuesday in December, the Peace Dojo—the community outreach program sponsored by Aikido of Reno—offered a free one-hour class on that third Peace Challenge, conflict transformation; the class, like all Peace Challenge classes, is offered at no charge. The focus of the evening’s class was walking.
Vince Salvatore, owner of Aikido of Reno, led the class through various iterations of walking. At each class, a different student is designated to demonstrate what Salvatore is teaching, typically by lightly sparring with him. Some students wore a white tunic and a long black skirt; others wore all white cotton tunics and short pants.
After stretching, students carefully walked around each other for about a minute—before grouchily walking toward and near each other. Other forms of walking with various attitudes ensued. Salvatore emphasized that presence of mind and awareness of mood when walking in the world can help lower stressful situations. Empathy with one’s own state of mind, and trying to understand others’ states of mind, can foster understanding beyond one’s own needs, he said.
Students also practiced various ways of responding to physical threats, such as flailing, raising one’s arms and deflecting the energy from a particular action—sending it into the air without injuring anyone.
Aikido is a Japanese martial art founded near the end of World War II by Morihei Ueshiba. It emphasizes redirecting energy that may aggressive to de-escalate mental and physical conflict. The idea is to protect oneself without harming others.
Aikido of Reno shares the same corner on Wells Avenue and Willow Street as Reno Improv, where Salvatore has been a member of since 2011. Salvatore melds his interests and training in both arts—improv and aikido—to de-escalate conflict. He said both arts require the participant to be adaptive and listen.
“Appropriate humor, played skillfully, can really help” decrease tension in a polarized society, Salvatore said.
Salvatore was born in New Jersey in 1963. His uncle trained in aikido and introduced him to the practice when he was 5 years old. Salvatore described being “wowed” when he first saw people practicing aikido, and developed a powerful interest in it immediately. He devoted himself to the practice throughout his teenage years in New Jersey, when his parents drove him 40 minutes each way to work out at a dojo with his cousins.
Salvatore recalled a police officer he trained with when he was about 18. That officer pointed out to Salvatore that he was a bit too energetic in class, sparring unnecessarily roughly with other students—which runs counter to what aikido teaches. Salvatore said police officers’ training in aikido helps them maintain their composure in extremely stressful situations.
When he was 24, Salvatore moved to rural Japan to immerse himself in the study of aikido. He recalled waking daily at 4 a.m. to rake the Shinto shrine, to journal and to work on a farm. In the early 1990s, he worked at Hitachi in Japan teaching English. He found Japanese and American engineers struggled to relate to one another’s cultures, and he wanted to help bridge the differences—so he used his aikido training and humor to help people see things differently.
Nearly 25 years ago, Salvatore and his wife, Fumi, moved to Reno to begin running what is now Aikido of Reno. Salvatore repeatedly discussed the community service aspect of Aikido.
“You’re supposed to give back,” he said, plainly. This ethic manifests with the Peace Dojo, as well as the gifting of beautiful Japanese flower arrangements the students put together.
Lynda Olman of Reno has trained at the Peace Dojo since January 2020. She started just before the pandemic struck, and then took classes on Zoom until the studio reopened. Olman trains twice weekly and emphasized the community aspect. She talked about being accountable to other students to show up and practice, and said a critical aspect of aikido is that it helps practitioners become comfortable setting physical boundaries. She is a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, and calls on aikido almost daily in her work and life. She routinely asks herself what her intention is when approaching situations, particularly at work.
Olman tried aikido many years ago in Austin, Texas. “I was not mature enough and felt bossed around,” she said.
She revisited the practice after an emotionally draining divorce left her off-center and with low self-esteem, she said. After several years, she feels centered and stable.
Fostering healing experiences and community connections, while promoting personal safety and that of others, are the foundations of the Peace Dojo. As the Peace Dojo website puts it: “The Peace Dojo is where you practice powerful ways to handle all types of CONFLICT.”
Aikido of Reno’s Peace Dojo is located at 195 S. Wells Ave., in Reno. For more information or to reserve a space in a Peace Challenge, visit www.peacedojo.com.