Skip to content

sfmai karate martial arts nyc

New at SFMAI

Good Guy/Bad Guy Self-Defense Workshop Tuesday August 10th, 7:30 - 10:00pm      $50.00

 

 
 
Subscribe
You are here:Home
Sensei Michelle Gay, CMA, RSME/T E-mail
Jodan Yoko Geri   
Sensei Michelle, SFMAI's Executive Director, is a martial artist, Laban Certified Movement Analyst, Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist and has  a background in professional dance and theatre. Along with her regular SFMAI schedule of classes and special workshops, she  teaches Anatomy and Kinesiology at the Manhattan Center for Alexander Technique, is on the guest faculty for the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, Dalton High School, and Broadway Dance Center.  Her first book "Brain Breaks For The Classroom" ,published by Scholastic, is due for release this fall.

She is a five time World Oyama Knockdown Champion and holds many North American Open Tournament Championship titles in kata and kumite. She won the Canadian Kyokushin Knockdown Division in 2001 and took 2nd place, plus the Fighting Spirit Award at the Seidokaikan "Knockdown Kings" tournament in NYC 2002. On October 9, 2004 she completed a 50-woman kumite (in 61 consecutive 1min. 30 secound fights) at the historic "A Woman's Right To Fight". The event was created to showcase the fighting spirit of the women who practice full contact karate. In 2003 she became a Laban Certified Movement Analyst. In 2004 , after competing further training in anatomy/ kinesiology and somatic movement education, she was accepted to  the International Somatic Educators and Movement Therapists Association(ISMETA). She is also certified by the American Council of Exercise.

She continues to practice Tai Chi with Grandmaster Yu (at SMAI), Iaido with Pam Parker, Renshi (at Ken Zen Dojo) and Brazilian Ju Jitsu with Professor Jucao (at SMAI). She studied embodied anatomy and kinesiology with Amy Mathews, Anatomy and Kinesiology with Irene Dowd, Integral Anatomy (cadaver dissection) with Gil Headley, PHD, Experiential Anatomy with Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, and is pursuing certication as an Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME) from the school of Body-Mind Centering. She continues to explore studies in a variety of "hands on" healing practices.

Sensei Michelle Conducts the Children's Karate Class
Photo: Rondell Romiel
 

Class Descriptions

Karate

Instructors: Sensei Michelle Gay, Sensei Maria Van Dessel

Our Style: World Kanreikai Karate (WWK)

Currently we offer regular group classes in World Kanreikai Karate (WWK) for adults, teens and children, and private individualized instruction. World Kanreikai Karate (WWK) is traditional Japanese full contact karate taught with an emphasis on good body mechanics and breath control. Each class is a mixture of kicking and punching techniques, stances, kata, sparring drills, body conditioning, dojo etiquette and Japanese vocabulary in which instructors pay particular attention to each individual's potential. World Kanreikai Karate (WWK) has affiliate schools in the United States, Canada, Israel, Russia and Poland.
 

Articles

Saturday was an historic day for Sensei Michelle Gay, even though she didn't make history as the first woman to fight 100 karate opponents consecutively. Gay had completed 61 fights and was on her 62nd opponent when severe leg cramps caused her to call it quits.
Read more...