Introduction Tai Chi Workshop

wudang Tai Chi 9

January Workshop 2025

Saturday, janaury 25

Penticton, BC

 
 
 

wudang tai chi

We will be leading a short, half-day Tai Chi workshop at our school on Saturday, January 25th from 1-4 pm where we will take everyone through the most basic of Wudang Tai Chi forms, the Tai Chi 9 太极9式.

  1. Holding the Ball 抱球式

  2. Step Back into Bear Posture 退步熊式

  3. Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail 揽雀尾

  4. Lifting the Hands 提手上式

  5. White Crane Spreads its Wings 白鹤亮翅

  6. Brush Knee 搂膝拗步

  7. Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane 野马分鬃

  8. Single Whip 正单边

  9. Closing Posture 收式

These are the most essential nine postures of our Tai Chi style, and in this form they’ve been arrayed in a sequence that is easy to memorize and to practice. The whole form takes about four minutes to do. We think of it like a Tai Chi appetizer. These nine postures are selections from the longer 28 step form.

 

Tai Chi in the San Feng Lineage

Tai Chi. Everyone kinda knows what it is at this point, right? It’s slow, sort of martial, sort of meditative. They say it’s good for you. There’s actually a huge amount of diversity in the Tai Chi space, a beautiful richness to it all. The style we teach at our school we learned during our years in China, training full time at a Daoist temple from 2008 to 2014. Speaking from my own direct experience, Tai Chi is simply good for everything. The most basic thing about it is the slowness. It’s this trick where if you start moving slow, after a little bit your breath will slow down too. Now you’re moving and breathing slow, and eventually your mind can’t resist and it also slows down. You are now in the Tai Chi zone. And that’s where the practice begins.
At this workshop the idea is to introduce you to that most basic of Tai Chi forms, the super simple 9 step, to give you a foot in the door, an entry point to this zone, to this feeling.

After going over the form a number of times we will pivot into push hands 推手, a simple, soft, and slow Tai Chi partner exercise.

Grandpa Zhong 钟师爷 doing grasp the sparrow’s tail 揽雀尾 at Five Dragons Temple 五龙宫

 
 

where is it?

At our school, Okanagan Valley Wudang, right in the middle of the Cannery Trade Centre, 115-1475 Fairview Road, Penticton BC.

what should i wear?

Something comfy. Loose-fitting clothing. Indoor shoes if you’ve got them. Bring a sweater because our space can be kinda chilly in the winter.

very nice, how much?

This workshop is $90 CAD