Tai Chi Chuan

Tai Chi means “Great Ultimate” or “Yin and Yang”. It is a term that is used to describe the patterns of the Universe. It refers to the concept that everything in the Universe is based on opposites that work in harmony to create balance. Some examples of this are; up and down, night and day, male and female, empty and full, matter and antimatter, stillness and movement, and so on.

The word Chuan means “fist”, which can imply martial application, or the way one holds one’s body.

Together, Tai Chi Chuan means “Spirit Boxing”, or “Great Ultimate Fist”

Why Tai Chi

Tai Chi and Qigong can be practiced for many different reasons. One of the great reasons is for all of the health benefits, as studies have widely shown. It can improve recovery from Stroke and Heart Attack, it improves Balance, Coordination, and Awareness, it can slow the aging process both mentally and physically, and most importantly its fun. Tai Chi can be practiced lightly as gentle exercise, or it can be taken to very high levels as an advanced Fighting Style. Tai Chi and Qigong have connections with Chinese Medicine, and their ultimate goal is to help practitioners achieve harmony and balance with the mind and body.

The Branches of Tai Chi Chuan

There are many different styles of Tai Chi, and most all of them are excellent. However, each has its own uniqueness and focus in its movement. At Dragon Phoenix we currently offer Chen Style and Yang Style Tai Chi. These are some of the primary styles and are all very respected in the Tai Chi community.

Which Tai Chi classes are for me?

One of the great things about Dragon Phoenix is that we have classes for all ages and ability levels!

To keep things simple, here is a general guide.

If you are older, recovering from an injury, or looking for gentle Tai Chi then we recommend any of the Drop In Tai Chi classes. This includes Tai Chi for Beginners, Gentle Tai Chi for Balance, and Tai Chi Fan. Other classes we would recommend to support similar goals would be our Qigong classes as well. These classes are all offered throughout the week around late morning or the middle of the day

If you like the slower Tai Chi, but would like to study a little more in depth, then our Yang 37 class might be the one for you. This class meets Saturday mornings.

If you would like more athletic Tai Chi that is also a style of martial arts, we have a couple of different classes that may work for you. Martial Tai Chi focuses on application through the Chen Pan Ling 99 Tai Chi form and meets on Wednesday evenings at 7. We would also recommend Chen Tai Chi. These classes meet Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at 1pm as well as Monday evenings at 7pm. Students who would like to explore more of the combat side of Chen Tai Chi can join the Wednesday evening Pao Choi class after showing proficiency in the level 1 Chen Classes.

Yang Style Tai Chi

Yang Style was the first derivative of Chen Style. Its founder Yang Lu-Chan was the first outsider that was allowed to learn Chen Tai Chi. He became very skilled in Tai Chi and was given permission to teach Tai Chi to outsiders provided that he take the martial application out of it and to focus primarily on the health benefits.

Yang Style is excellent for people who might have balance or health issues and would like to start with a very gentle Tai Chi.

In the Beginner Tai Chi class, the focus is on the Yang 10 and 24 forms as well as Qigong exercises for health. The Yang 24 form was created in 1956 as a way to create a simplified form of Taiji as exercise for the masses, this is the form many people perform in parks across the world. The reason for its creation was to give the beginner an introduction to the essential elements of Taijiquan, yet retain the traditional flavor of traditional longer hand forms.

Our Beginners Tai Chi class is held on Mondays and Thursdays from 11:30 - 12:30 and is taught by Susan

The Yang 37 form was created by the Tai Chi Master Chen Man Ching (The Professor), a student of Yang Cheng-Fu, in 1946 as a way to make the longer Yang form easier to learn for newer students. It shortens and balances the Yang 108 form, removing many of the repetitious movements and focuses more on health benefits than martial application. This class is a step up from the Beginners Class and is a great class for those who have studied Yang 37 or would like a form that is a little bit more involved than Yang 10 or 24. The Yang 37 class includes Qigong exercises as well as meditation.

Since this class goes a bit more in depth and the classes build on each other it is considered one of our Curriculum Classes. This means that tuition is on a monthly basis, but that you are welcome to come and try out a free class to see if it is a good fit for you.

Our Yang 37 classes are held on Saturdays mornings from 8:30 - 9:45 and are taught by Ken

Push Hands

Sunday afternoons from 4:30 - 5:30 we have a donation based Push Hands class led by Tyler. The focus of this class is building listening and sensitivity skills (Ting Jin) in movement with a partner.

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