Instructors

Jun Shihan Nancy Lanoue
6^th degree black belt

Nancy Lanoue has been practicing martial arts since 1977. For two years, she studied Goju Karate and women's self defense under Sensei Susan Murdock at the Women's Martial Arts Center in New York. During this time, she began to develop a political analysis of violence, and to understand how martial arts could be a non-violence practice. From 1979 to 1982, with two other women, she started and co-directed an organization called SAFE, which created empowering seminars on self-defense and brought them to schools, community groups, and corporations.

In 1979, Nancy began to study Seido Karate under Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura, and in 2006 she was awarded the rank of 6th degree black belt in this traditional Japanese art. In 1991, she also began training in Kajukenbo, a beautiful, hard/soft eclectic martial art, under her partner, Sarah Ludden. She holds a 2nd degree black belt in this art.

In 1985, Nancy began teaching Seido Karate to women in Chicago at the Women's Gym. In 1990, children's classes began, and in 1995, a new dojo was built and the adult program was opened to men. With the assistance of their dedicated senior students, who include over 50 active black belts, they currently oversee the practice of almost 400 men, women and children at Thousand Waves Martial Arts and Self-defense Center, NFP.

In addition to her work at Thousand Waves, since 1987 Nancy has been selected six times to serve as a trainer at Special Training, the annual camp of the National Women's Martial Arts
Federation. In 2001, the New Traditions Women's Martial Arts Hall of Fame named her Instructor of the Year. She has taught several times at the Association of Women Martial Arts Instructors national conference, "Teaching the Teacher."

From 1995 to 1997, she served as a member of the violence committee on the City of Chicago's Advisory Council on Women, supporting local, state, and national initiatives to reduce and prevent violence against women and children. She is also a founding member of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project.

Kyoshi Sarah Ludden
5^th degree black belt

Sarah was first drawn to the martial arts as a form of creative movement. She began training in Kajukenbo Kung Fu in 1981 with the late Professor Coleen Gragen at Hand to Hand Community Self-Defense Center in Oakland, California. She taught Kajukenbo and self-defense to adults and children at Hand to Hand and in outreach programs throughout the Bay area, and ran a Kajukenbo branch program for deaf and hearing students.

During the 1980's, in addition to teaching in the community, Sarah and other black belts at Hand to Hand provided security services to community organizations and political exiles from Central America and Chile. She was a founding member of "Streetwise," an ensemble of martial artists that blended music, dance, martial arts, and theatre to create socially relevant performance pieces for progressive causes.

In 1991, Sarah moved to Chicago to live and work with her partner, Nancy Lanoue. Together they serve as Co-Executive Directors and Head Instructors of Thousand Waves Martial Arts & Self-Defense Center. When Sarah first came to Chicago, the dojo was small and offered classes in Seido Karate only. She began training in Seido at that time, while continuing to practice Kajukenbo. During the first decade of their collaboration, Nancy taught Sarah Seido Karate while Sarah taught Nancy Kajukenbo, all while both were teaching most of the classes, plus running the dojo.

Since that time, the dojo has grown tremendously, enabling Sarah and Nancy to focus on areas of special interest. Sarah received her 5th degree black belt in Seido in 2005 and her 5th degree black belt in Kajukenbo in 2002. Sarah loves children and very much enjoys her position as director of Thousand Waves' acclaimed summer camp for children, Camp Kokoro. She continues to teach and perform at national training camps, produced by the Pacific Association of Women Martial Artists and the National Women's Martial Arts Federation.