Adult Self-Defense Karate
Karate built for the Real World
Traditional Okinawan karate — developed centuries ago for actual self-defense, not sport, not competition. Daytime and evening classes throughout the week in Alexandria. Beginners and experienced students train together. No sparring. No long-term contract. First class free.
Adult Self-Defense Karate: Not Your Kids' Dojo
What Makes Us Different
Most martial arts you'll find today were designed for competition — points, rules, controlled environments. Okinawan karate was developed for something else entirely: defending yourself in the real world, against real threats, with no referee.
That distinction runs through everything we teach at Virginia Dojo. Every technique has a purpose. Every movement has a meaning. You won't spend years collecting belts and trophies. You'll spend years building something that actually works.
Who Trains Here
Our adult students range from their 30s to their 70s. Some arrive with no martial arts background at all. Some tried martials arts in the teens and are ready to come back. Others come in with years of experience in other styles and find that Okinawan karate fills gaps they didn't know they had.
What they have in common: they wanted something more serious than a fitness class, more purposeful than a gym, and more challenging than anything they'd tried before.
If that sounds like you, you'll fit in.
What You'll Learn
Every class builds real, applicable skill across three core areas:
- Kata — precisely choreographed movement sequences that encode self-defense techniques developed over centuries. Kata is the curriculum. Every movement has a specific defensive application.
- Bunkai — the translation of kata into practical self-defense. You'll learn what each movement means and how to apply it.
- Kumite — controlled two-person drills that make your technique usable under pressure. This is not sparring. You'll practice with a partner in a safe, structured environment.
There is no free sparring in our program. There is no point-fighting. What there is: technique, depth, and the kind of skill that builds over a lifetime.
What a Class Actually Looks Like
Classes run 60 minutes, evenings throughout the week and at noon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You'll warm up, work on fundamentals, practice kata, and drill applications with a partner. All levels train together — this is intentional. Newer students learn from watching experienced ones.
Experienced students sharpen their fundamentals by teaching.
You will be challenged. You will not be thrown in the deep end.
Newer students are always paired with experienced partners who know how to work with beginners. Classes are taught by Hanshi Roberto Curtis and Denise Coursey, 4th dan, so instruction is always covered by a senior, experienced teacher.
Adult membership is all-inclusive. As an adult member, you can attend any class offered at the dojo — evening classes, Midday Dojo noon classes, and, for those who identify as women, the women's program classes as well. One membership, full access.
Our Lineage
Virginia Dojo teaches in the Beikoku Shidokan Karatedo lineage — a direct line from the original Okinawan masters who developed karate as a practical self-defense system. This is not a franchise. This is not a chain gym with a licensed curriculum.
When you train here, you are learning a tradition passed down instructor to student for generations. That matters — not as a marketing claim, but as a guarantee of depth. You will never run out of things to learn.
Your INstructors
Hanshi Roberto Curtis, 9th Dan
Hanshi Roberto Curtis, 9th Dan
Hanshi Roberto Curtis, 9th Dan
Hanshi Curtis has trained in the martial arts for over 50 years. He is a direct student of the late Grand Master Seikichi Iha, 10th dan, founder of the Beikoku Shidokan Karatedo Association — recognized by the Okinawan Government as an Intangible Cultural Heritage Asset.
He has taught self-defense to US Embassy security personnel and law enforcement professionals. He has been recognized as Best Martial Arts Instructor in Alexandria every year since 2017. He is in his 70s and still on the mat.
Denise Coursey, 4th Dan
Hanshi Roberto Curtis, 9th Dan
Hanshi Roberto Curtis, 9th Dan
Denise is co-owner of Virginia Dojo and founder and head instructor of Okinawan Karate for Women. She has been practicing martial arts for more than two decades — and for much of that time, she was one of the only women in the room.
She teaches the Wednesday evening adult class, the Friday Midday Dojo class, and all women's program classes. She and Roberto also substitute for each other regularly, so there is always a senior, experienced instructor on the mat.