Our School
Open Sky offers a full schedule of classes in two martial arts: traditional Aikido for adults and teens, and Chen-style tai chi classes for adults. Open Sky is an official member dojo of the United States Aikido Federation.
Our chief instructor, Steve Kaufmann, Shihan (master teacher), is a 7th degree black belt in Aikido and long-time student of Tai Chi, with over 40 years of practice and teaching. Steve is now semi-retired, teaching regularly in the Duke PE program and occasionally teaching at Open Sky. The dojo manager, Mike Dolan Fliss, 4th dan, has been training in aikido for over two decades and martial arts for over three. Both Steve and Jesse Kaufmann and Mike are longtime Tai Chi students, including years of training in Chen-style Tai Chi with Grand Master Wang Haijun. We are fortunate to have many dedicated advanced students and instructors at our school.
Our dojo believes in diversity and inclusivity and that they actively benefit our practice.
Location: After 20 years in Hillsborough, Open Sky Martial Arts has reopened in a brand new, beautiful location at 131 Boone Square St., Hillsborough, NC, located in the Triangle region of North Carolina, an easy drive from Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Mebane, and Efland. See our contact page for more information. See below for a time lapse of our build.
New Students & Visitors
Fall 2026 tai chi and aikido sessions are starting soon and will begin in September. See the new aikido students page or tai chi page for details.
If you are interested in joining Fall 2026 sessions (to begin mid-September / early October), please reach out by email now to field questions and join the waitlist for those upcoming classes.
For general questions about the aikido program (including visiting to watch class or train) or questions about our tai chi program, please email us at info@openskymartialarts.com.
Though we have in the past and hope to again, at this time we are not offering young children’s classes.
Please join our listserv for timely updates about closings, weather, etc.
(NOTE: During the pandemic our school only accepted fully vaccinated – including booster when eligible – new members. We have dropped this requirement for the time being. See our archived COVID-19 page for details.)