Boulder Quest Center dojo The Boulder Quest Center was founded on an auspicious day in the fall of 2004. Since that day, thousands of people in Boulder and around the world have discovered the power and excitement of To-Shin Do through the dojo training hall. The Boulder Quest dojo is an incredible community of adventurous and accomplished individuals, supporting each other in their mutual quest to transform into the most capable and authentic human beings possible. The dojo community is led by a few individuals who have made it their life's work to empower others. Get to know a little bit about them below, and then call us at (303) 440-3647 so they can get to know you!     MARY A. CASEY II Return to Top Mary Ji-Aitoshi Casey II Mary receives a personal blessing from His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Mary Ji-Aitoshi Casey II Owner, Boulder Quest Center 3rd Degree Black Belt, To-Shin Do® ninjutsu Member of the To-Shi order of warrior-protectors Disciple of the Blue Lotus Assembly tradition Senior Instructor, To-Shin Do® ninjutsu Weapons Instructor: Kenjutsu (sword), Bojutsu (staff) Cardio Kickboxing and Cardio Sword Instructor M.S. in Recreation Administration (UNC-CH) CPR/First Aid Instructor Reiki Master Vice President, Play! Boulder Mary Aitoshi specializes in helping beginners find the path and discover the joy of self-empowering adventure through martial arts. She is a big believer in freedom through power, especially for people trapped by fear. Mary Aitoshi first encountered martial arts through women's self-defense programs in college, but found that they could not adapt to the more complex realities that modern women face. "Most attacks on women are by people they know," she notes, "so gouging out the eyes may not be appropriate." She searched for a more intelligent and nuanced approach while completing her fitness certifications and Master's degree in Recreation Administration from UNC-Chapel Hill. She found To-Shin Do® and immediately recognized how the Five Element approach of this martial art provided a platform for scalable and nuanced response. She wrote her Master's thesis on the Five Elements, earned her Black Belt, and moved to Boulder, Colorado to enjoy both the spiritual and outdoor-recreation instincts of the community. After arriving, she was sure that Boulder residents would be able to appreciate the embodied empowerment experience that To-Shin Do® offers. When not helping new people discover the support of the To-Shin path, Mary Aitoshi also volunteers as the Vice President of Play! Boulder (formerly called the Boulder Parks and Recreation Foundation). She continues to grow in her own personal martial and meditation practices from the To-Shin lineage, and for recreation, she hikes, swims, and skis with her husband Kevin. Mary is proud to be living fully and freely as an empowered, educated woman with her own business bringing her inspiration and dream to the world. She loves nothing more than to share that power and knowledge with others, especially women finding their own way to power and dream-manifestation. KEVIN JI-KEITOSHI CASEY Return to Top Kevin Ji-Keitoshi Casey meets His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, while attending a special teaching in Bloomington, IN in October of 2007. Many thanks to Stephen K. Hayes for facilitating this auspicious meeting. Kevin Ji-Keitoshi Casey demonstrates swordsmanship skills as part of a community celebration awarding black belts to Boulder Quest senior students. Kevin Ji-Keitoshi Casey 3rd Degree Black Belt, To-Shin Do® ninjutsu Member of the To-Shi order of warrior-protectors Disciple of the Blue Lotus Assembly tradition Senior Instructor, To-Shin Do® ninjutsu Advanced Specialist, Bojutsu (staff) Weapons Instructor: Kenjutsu (sword), Shurikenjutsu (throwing blade), Kusari Fundo (chain) Instructor, Classical Taijutsu (historical armored fighting methods) B.A. in Foreign Languages (Russian and German) Cisco Certified Internetworking Engineer #6611 Reiki Master Kevin Keitoshi specializes in integrating spiritual and physical practice. Inspired by life-long spiritual experiences, his personal mission is to discover the hidden mysteries of life and then help others to do the same. Kevin Keitoshi approached martial arts as a means of discovering and testing spiritual truth. He was greatly inspired to discover that To-Shin Do® ninjutsu is based on a martial tradition 900 years old, a spiritual tradition even older than that, and yet founded by heroic modern American adventurer Stephen K. Hayes. Kevin Keitoshi trains with great enthusiasm alongside his wife Mary Aitoshi, and traces the roots of To-Shin Do® across ancient Japan, China, and India. He studies and trains in historical methods and the modern form of To-Shin Do® to understand as deeply as possible the wisdom of the ancients. He shares, "Following the example of my teacher, Stephen K. Hayes, I use my brain, my heart, and my experiences to reconstruct, explore, and interpret the vast and deep understanding passed on to us through our lineages. It is my honor and pleasure to share my work with you." Kevin Keitoshi leverages his experiences in meditation, martial arts, foreign languages, psycholinguistics, computer programming, mathematics, finance, project management, business administration and world travel to provide his students with the essence of the lineages he teaches. He also leads the Boulder Quest Leadership Team and Dignitary Protection Team. When not teaching, studying, or researching, he puts his insights to the test in the big mountains of Colorado, where Nature is the ultimate teacher.   JENNIFER SECRIST GORAN Return to Top Jennifer Secrist Goran Jennifer Secrist Goran Training in bellydancing since 1989 Certified General Skills ATS, July 2007 Founded first ATS troupe in Tallahassee, FL Performs with Desert Rain Jennifer Secrist Goran began her tribal bellydance training in San Francisco in 1989 with well known American Tribal Style founder, instructor and performer Carolena Nericcio, director of FatChanceBellyDance (www.fcbd.com). Jennifer was immediately impressed by the presence and poise of the instructor and by the powerful, organic feel of the dance. In July 2007, Jennifer Secrist Goran, her Desert Rain troupemates, Lisa Goodrich & Anita Kear, along with Molly McClellan & Julia DiVerdi of TribalTique, traveled to San Francisco to complete their GS Certification in ATS. They are the first dancers in Colorado to have been honored with this certification! Jennifer is well-known for her technical precision and ability to clearly demonstrate and communicate the foundational movements of ATS that allow for group improv which is free yet graceful, responsive to the moment and yet naturally beautiful and coordinated. Jennifer can be seen performing with Desert Rain: www.desertraindance.org. To buy belly dance skirts, tops, jewelry and get costuming information, check out tribenawaar.com.           KEEGAN SHORROCK Return to Top Keegan Shorrock Keegan Shorrock  1st Degree Black Belt, To-Shin Do® ninjutsu Instructor, To-Shin Do® ninjutsu Weapons licenses: Shurikenjutsu, Kenjutsu, Bojutsu Reiki II certified Like many people, Keegan Shorrock wanted to be a ninja when he grew up. Everyone told him that was impossible. Unlike most people, Keegan didn't let that stop him. Now he teaches Mighty Dragons, Cardio Kickboxing and To-Shin Do® classes at the dojo, drawing on his playful nature, indestructible youth, and deep love for ninja secrets.  Keegan takes every possible aspect of ninja training to be his path. Along with earning a Black Belt in To-Shin Do®, he also achieved certifications in instruction techniques, ancient classical weapons and energy healing by the age of 20. He continues his studies with ancient sword and armor-smithing techniques, unusual weapons such as the naginata and kyoketsu shoge, parkour freerunning, advanced ninja tactical training and meditation methods. Keegan is enthusiastically living his dream as a professional ninja, and wants to share the power of this path with the whole world. He honestly cannot understand why every last person would not want to do this.

• Mary Aitoshi's column in Women's Magazine
  Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008

  Mary Aitoshi writes a regular column entitled "What if?" for Women's Magazine here in Boulder.  As a self-defense expert, Aitoshi writes timely pieces advising women on how to handle socially-nuanced personal defense situations.  The column goes out in both the print and online editions of the magazine - we've included the online versions here for your convenience.  Enjoy!

  What if... You Have a Stalker (April 2009 issue)
  What if... How to Keep Safe When It's Cold (and Dark) Outside (February 2009 issue)
  What if... the holidays put you at risk for family violence? (December 2008 issue)
  What if... How to deal with a date aggressor (November 2008 issue)
  What if... Somebody's watching me (October 2008 issue)
• Self Defense at Spectra Logic
  Posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2009

  PDF of Press Release

  For Immediate Release
  Media Contact: Neshama Abraham; (303) 413-8066; Neshama@AbrahamPaiss.com
  Boulder Quest Center Founder and Third Degree Black Belt Mary Casey Teaches
  “Scalable Self Defense Seminar for Women” at Spectra Logic on Weds. Oct. 14
  Training Offers Practical, Scalable Techniques for Real Life Situations
  and Unique Team Building Experience for Company Employees

  BOULDER, Colo.; October 12, 2009 – Mary A. Casey II, a third degree black belt and cofounder of the Boulder Quest Center (www.boulderquest.com), knows about women’s self defense. For the second year in a row, the female staff at Spectra Logic in Boulder chose Casey to lead an in-office retreat with martial arts as the focus of the team building experience. The all women led training will give employees practical self-defense techniques applicable for a rangeof real life situations, from the socially uncomfortable situations that can happen in officesettings to all the way to life threatening situations with an unknown assailant.

  The “Scalable Self Defense for Women” training will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 14 from 11:45 am-1:15 pm in the Spectra Logic training room, 1700 55th St. in Boulder, next door to Boulder’s Dinner theatre at Arapahoe. Female media representatives are welcome to attend.

  “The key to practical self-defense is scalability,” said Casey. “We need the right response for each situation. If your boss does something inappropriate in the office you need a way to handle the situation quickly and safely without maiming your boss and losing your job. While if you are by yourself on a bike ride or hiking trail and your attacker has a weapon, you need a much different response,” explained Casey.

  For the Women’s Leadership Group at Spectra Logic, Casey will be focusing on three objectives. “My goals are to first, provide employees with a way of relieving stress, and we’ll be using pads and hitting stuff. Two, to offer an experience of personal empowerment, so people feel stronger and more powerful after the seminar than when they came in. Three, to offer a team building experience for women to work with someone they don’t know, and for employees and supervisors to work as peers to build camaraderie,” said Casey.

  Casey was first motivated to learn self defense after having her own real life situation in a social settings where she did not have an adequate response. She began to study To-Shin Do in North Carolina in1998, became a certified instructor in 2000, co-founded the Boulder Quest Center in 2004, and earned her third degree black belt in the To-Shin Do tradition in 2007.

  Casey has also led on-site female self defense and empowerment seminars such as “Divas Defend” for Outdoor Divas women’s sports store, Lululemon, the Boulder Independent Business Alliance, and the Chamber of Commerce.

  “Spectra Logic chose to host Boulder Quest Center’s self defense class as a team building exercise to enrich the lives of our female employees,” said Betsy Doughty, director of channel marketing and key member of Spectra’s Summit Leadership team, a grassroots women-led group that provides personal and professional development for the people of Spectra. “We especially wanted to offer an optional tool set to educate our employees that are working after hours and those who travel for business.”

  Casey offers a free women’s self defense training as a community service open to the public once a quarter. Her next training will be on Saturday, Oct. 24th from 4-6 pm at the Boulder Quest Center. She will focus on response to common attacks, prevailing over bigger  stronger attackers, and de-escalation techniques.

  About the Boulder Quest Center
  Boulder Quest Center is an independent martial arts dojo at 1200 Yarmouth Ave. in North Boulder. The dojo opened in 2005, by husband and wife third degree black belts Mary Aitoshi Casey II and Kevin Ji-Keitoshi Casey, both senior instructors in To-Shin Do and teachers of Blue Lotus Assembly meditation technique. The To-Shin Do lineage was founded by Stephen K. Hayes, personal body guard to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, black belt Hall of Fame instructor, and author of 18 books on martial arts.

  The Boulder Quest Center is open from Monday to Saturday and offers a full schedule of classes, including Fundamentals of Self Protection, Mighty Dragons for 4-6 year olds, Classical Weapons-mastery of traditional ninja tools, Ground Fighting, and Meditation. The dojo also hosts fitness classes, such as Cardio Kickboxing/Cardio Sword, Ninja Fit, Tribal Belly Dance, and Yoga. Additional information is available 303.440.3647 or on the Boulder Quest Center website:www.boulderquest.com .

  About Spectra Logic Corporation
  At Spectra Logic we define, design and deliver innovative data protection through tape, deduplication and disk-based backup, recovery and archive storage solutions. By igniting innovation we challenge expectations of the data protection market with intelligent,  integrated, and simple to use backup and archive technologies. Throughout our 30-year history we have delivered high-density, feature rich storage with unmatched service and support to customers worldwide. For more information, visit www.SpectraLogic.com.

  ###

  Download PDF of this release
• BQC in the media
  Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2009

  The Boulder Quest Center is regularly featured in the media.  Here are a few of the pieces created about our dynamic programs!

  Workout of the Week: NinjaFit (Jun 2009)

  Boulder County Business Report article (Aug 2008)
  Boulder County Business Report award announcement (Nov 2008)

  Workouts of the Year: Most Creative, Cardio Sword (Jun 2008)

  Workout of the Week: Cardio Sword (Jan 2008)

  VIDEO: Out There Guy goes to Ninja School

  Workout of the Week: To-Shin Do level 1 (Sept 2007)
• Media Kit
  Posted on Friday, January 01, 2010

  Below are print-quality high-resolution photos of founder, owner, and Senior Instructor of the Boulder Quest Center Mary Aitoshi Casey II:

  Mary A. Casey II with sword (color portrait)

  
  Mary A. Casey II with sword (high contrast black and white landscape)

  
  Mary A. Casey II with gloves (color portrait)

This is where my kids and I train.... I love that it's a martial art tradition that has not lost it's spiritual and moral foundation. I train because, unfortunately, we live in a world where some people will attempt to dominate others with violence.... which I reject. I train to protect myself and defend my loved ones from said manipulations.

Hollie

Thank you so much for offering this [women's self-defense] seminar and opening it to the larger community. I can't begin to tell you how incredibly empowering and also healing this experience was. I have never been able to will myself to make eye contact or even look at an attacker (as if I couldn't get past just pretending it wasn't happening). Tonight, I found myself moving increasingly toward the attack with my body, and moving toward fear is a concept in my spiritual practice with which I had not yet made much progress....until tonight when I could get a sense of what that would be like. I came home and showed [my daughter] some things & she responded with enthusiasm. It was exhilarating to practice with her just as it was to witness the young ladies who participated, all finding their way toward empowerment early in their lives. Thank you for all that you do!

Janna

"I joined the fitness program at the BQC a little over a year ago. I love it! Cardio kickboxing is a great workout and huge stress reliever. Mary and her staff are very warm, welcoming, and friendly. The part that I like most about BQC is that even though I am only in the fitness program and not the To-Shin Do, I am still treated as a valued customer. Keep up the great work Mary!"

Karen

My desire for learning and growth is reinforced today in my To-Shin Do martial arts training. Over the course of the last nine months I have cultivated discipline in my body and mind that informs every area of my life. Studying To-Shin Do is not just a physical endeavor; it enables me to live a full, thriving and structured life. I move with ease within any kind of social context; taking on challenges like the Denver Teaching Fellows program, multi-tasking conflict resolution and high stress situations without hesitation.

Victoria M.

The most important lesson I have learned is you can and should transform jealousy into happiness for that person and strive with the same amount of effort as them. "I promote harmony and positive momentum to bring out the best in everyone." Martial arts success is difficult without an honest agreement with the student creed because your not fully present in what's taking place, you can't keep progressing in your training, if you don't respect the people that help you progress.

Ava, age 11

Mary Aitoshi has been one of the main instructors in my sons martial arts program and I cannot say enough about what a terrific teacher, leader and role model she has been for him. My son is very shy and initially did NOT want to attend a martial arts class. Now I can't keep him away from the place! Mary has a gift with children. Her style is playful yet firm and she really makes each child feel special. She has been a blessing to our family, my timid son has blossomed in her care, he adores Mary as do my husband and I. We can honestly say we have the highest regard for Mary and the Quest center staff. They are really phenomenal people who have treated us like family from the moment we stepped into their center.

Julie

Mary's classes are thoughtful, engaging and loads of fun. She has a great way of combining storytelling and soliciting questions to get you, the student, thinking with your mind & your body therefore making it easier to retain what you learned. Mary is funny, sincere and full of energy. She is much like the the dojo where the classes are held which is a sunny, beautiful place with a welcoming feel. Being in that environment with people who know what they are doing and, most importantly, who want you to succeed is a powerful place to be indeed.

Colleen

Hi Kevin and Mary and Keegan, Just a quick note to say again how much Carter is enjoying your classes. It is wonderful to see him so engaged. He goes to class 3 times a week and definitely would come everyday if he could! You have created a wonderful space and seem to making a positive difference for many people. :)

Lisa Fasullo