6 2 - Dominican University

On Tuesdays, Professor Dianne Costanzo, PhD, guides her
students in exploring theories of virtue and happiness, and she
leads intriguing discussions on choices of good and evil, challenging
the students to contemplate ways of being their best selves.
On Thursdays, Costanzo Sensei puts those theories of virtue, choice
and contemplation into action as her students kneel side by side
listening, observing and repeating the lessons of aikido – “the art
of peace.” In her senior seminar entitled “Aikido as Contemplation”
Costanzo applies the Japanese martial art and the texts of Aristotle to
guide students in understanding virtue and what it means to be a
virtuous, noble person, and how choices contribute to who we are in
the world.
“Aikido is a form of self-defense that teaches a unity of mind and
body,” Costanzo says. “With aikido, the body informs the mind and
vice versa, and the lessons learned are about being the best we can
be. Aristotle says that virtue and happiness are in accordance, so in
our seminar we learn how to put theoretical learning into our bodies
to achieve holistic learning of mind, body and spirit.”
A trained spiritual director with a master’s degree in spirituality,
a doctorate in literature, and a fourth-degree black belt in aikido,
Costanzo is uniquely qualified to lead the seminar. A member of the
Dominican faculty since 1997, Costanzo has taught in Oak Park since
2000 and earned the title “Sensei” in 2002. In 2009, she opened her
own dojo (school) in Oak Park.
Literally translated, aikido means “the way of harmony through
energy,” and unlike other martial arts of karate or tae kwon do,
there are no competitions, contests or trophies, nor does it involve
strikes or kicks, but rather uses dynamic movement, throws and
joint locks to achieve nonviolent resolution to conflict.
“Aikido is about achieving self-realization and transcending the ego,
so in our lessons we learn how to fall and roll,” Costanzo says.
“If you fall down seven times, you get up eight times. The lesson
here is that we all fall and we all fail, but we don’t want to stay in
failure. We learn to get up from a fall and to recover from failure.”
Through aikido and the study of Aristotle, students learn the importance
of living and being in the present, rather than being trapped in the
past or forecasting to the future. “In life, we are always choosing,”
Costanzo says. “We choose how to act and we can choose to do good
or not. My goal is to have students come away from the class with a
clear understanding of their choices and way of being in the world.”
FEATURE
“I never imagined that in six weeks a class could change me so
much,” says Estefania Alberttis, an education and Spanish studies
major. “The new perspective gained from studying Aristotle and
aikido together has led me to truly become conscious of what it
means to be good and lead a happy life. Now that I have taken this
class, I have a responsibility to act and not just wish things would
happen. If I want our community to be better, I need to make it
happen and not wait for someone else to do it.”
“Both aikido and Aristotle require a lot of thinking and really using
your brain,” says Shannon Perry, a food science major. “Professor
Costanzo expects great things from us and she expects participation
because you can’t learn anything by just sitting there. We don’t have
to be good at it, we just have to be willing to show up at the mat and
try.” Because Perry values the discipline so much, she signed on to
continue studying aikido for an additional 12 months.
Indeed, aikido is a martial art that is practiced into old age, so for
Costanzo’s seminar the only requirement is an openness and
willingness to try, and to participate both in the discussion and at the
mat. “If you hold people to be the best they can be, most times they
rise to the occasion. It is up to the student to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’”
Costanzo says.
While the seminars are a distinctive element of the Dominican
curriculum (see sidebar article on page 9), the “Aikido as
Contemplation” seminar is an especially unique offering.
“The seminars are a beautiful place for faculty to be creative,”
Costanzo says. “Wonderful things are happening in the seminars.”
“The seminars are more about life lessons than anything else; they teach
us to be better individuals and take responsibility for our small part of
the world,” Alberttis concludes. “They open our eyes to issues that we
may not encounter in our daily lives and force us to embrace what it
really means to be part of a Dominican, Catholic community.”
Dianne Costanzo, PhD
Fall 2010 Dominican University Magazine
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