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August saw the start of DDA’s 2nd annual Taiji tour in the USA.
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This year, DDA’s Rose Oliver & Master Wang Ming Bo held workshops, seminars and classes in Boston & Birmingham, New Hampshire; Charlotte, Shelby, Winston Salem, Durham & Chapel Hill in North Carolina; and in Big Canoe, near Atlanta, Georgia.
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Starting in Boston, old DDA friend Ms. Julie Netti and her partner Jolanda, along with Mr. Eugene Gaudreau & Jim Winner of the Oriental Healing Arts Association, arranged with DDA to host a series of workshops for health workers, doctors and massage therapists, as well as students and Taiji enthusiasts.
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The first day-long workshop was held on 4th August, with the morning session attended by doctors, nurse and health therapists interested in the advocacy of TCM being used alongside western-style medicine, as a complement to traditional health therapies in the USA, in addition to a Tuina massage hands-on workshop, instructing the participants on different massage techniques and osteopathic-type modalities.
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The afternoon session was devoted to Taiji practice, including joint opening and mobility exercises (as taught in DDA’s new Joint Mobility Training DVD now available), tendon stretching & sinew elongation exercises, 2-person joint mobility and sensitivity exercises, as well as pushing hands practice, dantian cultivation exercises and “ Grasp the bird’s Tail” integrated dantian and energy work.
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On the 5th August, the Oriental Healing Arts Association arranged for Rose and Master Wang to conduct an afternoon seminar and lesson for the “Riverwoods Seniors Home” in the beautiful area of Newcastle, New Hampshire.
The workshop was an interactive Taiji and health arts session for the elderly residents at the home, who already study Taiji with Eugene and Jim’s Oriental Healing Arts Association.
With around 40 senior guests taking part, the event was warmly welcomed by the very sprightly residents who particularly enjoyed the 2-person exercises and self massage techniques.
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Following the workshop, Eugene and Jim took Rose and Master Wang for a tour of the beautiful rural town of Newcastle, which is situated along the Atlantic coastline, featuring some of the most spectacular homes, gardens, forests and scenery, with a picturesque harbour and estuary.
After showing them around, Eugene and Jim treated Rose & Master Wang to a fabulous dinner of fresh Maine lobster and crab, all caught fresh from the ocean that day!
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On 6th August, Julie Netti and Jolanda took Rose and Master Wang for a guided tour of the historic city of Boston, famous for the docking of the Mayflower and the Boston Tea Party, where independence from the UK took roots!
Taking them for a wonderful tour of some of the city’s most famous cultural and scenic spots, including Harvard University and the Boston Museum, and its vibrant Chinatown. With is historic and cultural heritage, it was a great day and a highly successful and enjoyable start to DDA’s US tour.
Thank you to Julie, Jolanda, Eugene and Jim and everyone at the Oriental Healing Arts Association for such a wonderful time and for making the trip possible. Rose and everyone at DDA are already looking forward to next year’s event!
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After Boston, Rose and Master Wang next headed to meet up with Mike Gentile in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the next series of seminars.
Mike, who attended DDA’s 2009 Shanghai Camp, came to DDA’s seminars in Asheville last year, and this year was organizing his first workshops in cooperation with DDA.
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The first workshop was an evening class on 9th August at the Cypress Senior’s Home.
Tai Chi Mike, as Mike is known, presented Rose and Master Wang to his regular Taiji students at the home, with an hour of Taiji and Qigong interactive exercises and demonstrations.
The elderly residents thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on exercises, as similar to Boston; the participants learned some gentle mobility exercises, self-massage acupressure techniques and some two-person stretching exercises.
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Thank you to Mike for giving us the opportunity to work with such an inspiring group of octogenarians!
On 10th August, we hosted an all-day workshop at Sifu Ray Ferrell’s American Kendo Karate Association Dojo in Charlotte.
The all-day workshop focused on joint mobility exercises, tendon stretching & sinew elongation exercises, 2-person joint mobility and sensitivity exercises, pushing hands practice, dantian cultivation exercises and integrated dantian and energy work, joint locking techniques and applications among others.
Several of Sifu Ray Ferrell’s senior students and teachers attended, several of Mike’s students and colleagues, plus Bubba Powell and some of his students.
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The event was very well-received, as well as great fun and following the event, Ray, Mike and some of the senior students invited Rose and Master Wang to an excellent Chinese restaurant for a delicious dinner!
On 11th August, they travelled to the nearby town of Shelby, for the last workshop in the charlotte area.
This workshop was an all-day seminar at the WindRiver Cancer Hospice Retreat, run by Shannon Carney and her husband Dave, set in the beautiful Smoky Mountains region, with its own river winding through the mountain sides.
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Shannon, herself a cancer survivor, set up the WindRiver retreat with Dave several years ago, to help those recovering from or dealing with all forms of cancer.
The hospice offers a wonderfully peaceful retreat from the stresses of the outside world, set deep in the mountains with its own forest, river and waterfalls!
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The programme there includes meditation, yoga, music and art therapy, and of course Taiji with Mike.
The workshop was attended by around 16-18 participants, mainly from Mike’s Taiji classes, but with a surprise visit by singer Jim Lauderdale of Nashville fame, a very old and dear friend of Rose, her late husband Rey and Master Wang.
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With Taiji and qigong by the river, under the sun-dappled leaves, with the sound of the birds singing and the river water gurgling below, the atmosphere was magical.
After the morning session, when everyone enjoyed a delicious home-cooked lunch, there followed an interactive tuina massage session, where the participants got to experience some acupressure massage and learn some self massage techniques.
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Many of the participants were still recovering from cancer and were eager to know more about Taiji’s recuperative powers and methods of promoting healing and energy circulation through the body.
Everyone was extremely interested in the ways TCM and tuina can promote self-healing and after the workshop, several guests and participants stayed on to ask more questions and talk more about Taiji and TCM’s rejuvenating qualities.
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In the evening, Shannon and Dave prepared another delicious dinner for Rose, Master Wang, Mike and a few other special guests, presenting everyone with more absolutely mouth-watering fare!
Rose, Master Wang, Mike stayed over at the retreat and the next day, enjoying a cooling dip in the river, swimming in the crystal-clear waters beneath the waterfall. With temperatures in the high 80’s Fahrenheit, (30-35 degree C), it was definitely very refreshing!
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Back at Charlotte, they had a short rest at Mike’s home overlooking a forest and golf course, before heading to Atlanta, Georgia for the next leg of the tour.
Thank you to Mike and everyone in Charlotte and Shelby for making this first visit so memorable; we’ll definitely be back next year!
Before heading to Georgia, we first met up with Bubba Powell again, to stay at his family home in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
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Bubba, who’s another very dear and old friend of DDA’s Rose and Master Wang, teaches several Taiji classes and invited Rose & Master Wang to meet his students, some of whom have attended workshops in the past, and give them some advice and corrections in their Taiji practice.
With classes in the local park, a large spacious green area, with swimming pool, tennis courts, children’s area and covered pavilion for rainy days, the atmosphere was very conducive to serious practice of Taiji and family gatherings alike!
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Our first week in Winston was warm and comfortable thanks to Bubba and his father’s traditional Southern hospitality, thank you to both of them for making us feel so welcome!
On 17th August, Rose, Master Wang and Bubba set off for the 5-hour drive to Georgia for the Sunday seminar in Big Canoe, a small area near Atlanta. Co-organized by DDA friend Jeff Cook, of the Dragon Cloud Tai Chi School, this was the first time DDA had a workshop there.
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First stopping along the way in the cultured city of Asheville to see Rose’s stepdaughter Ariane, who’s now living and working there, having finished her Master’s degree in the university there.
Rose and Ariane had a wonderful time catching up and it was great to see her grow up into such a confident, happy and talented young lady, still an enthusiastic practitioner of Chinese martial arts, and keeping up her Dad Rey’s legacy!
Ariane now works in Murphy’s Irish Pub and with her long curly hair and Scottish accent, is a great hit with the locals!
The picture of health and happiness, her Dad would be so proud of her achievements and adventurous spirit!
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It was great for everyone to catch up and spend time together, Ariane came to Shanghai back in 2007, so was familiar with Master Wang too.
She plans to stay in the USA for the next few years, Rose, Master Wang and everyone at DDA wishes her every success for the future!
Our 3rd seminar in the tour was in Georgia, in the quiet mountain area of Big Canoe near Atlanta.
Jeff Cook of Dragon Cloud Tai Chi Association was the co-organizer; Jeff attended DDA’s 2009 workshops in Tennessee with Master Liu Ji Fa and the 2012 workshops in Asheville with Master Wang Ming Bo, but this was his first time cooperating with DDA in putting on a workshop.
After the long drive to Georgia with Bubba, Jeff and his family invited us for a delicious dinner in the Big Canoe National Forest Park, set in the Smoky Mountain ranges, where we sampled some typical southern American dishes, and enjoyed a wonderful live, classic guitar performance by a UK native from Manchester.
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After a very restful night at Jeff’s home in the Nature Reserve, we conducted our Sunday workshop, which concentrated on joint mobility exercises, tendon stretching & sinew elongation exercises, 2-person joint mobility and sensitivity exercises, dantian cultivation exercises, integrated dantian and energy work, and pushing hands practice, particularly working on Master Shou Guan Shun’s large drill push hands and the “ward off, rollback, press, push” pattern that is standard in China.
After the seminar, Jeff took Rose, Master Wang and Bubba to a wonderful Chinese restaurant, where they serve authentic Hunan dishes, which was absolutely out-of-this-world!
It was a great send off and a fantastic end to our weekend in Georgia.
Thanks to Jeff and his family for their hospitality and to everyone who helped and supported our seminar there.
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After another 5-hour trip back to Winston, Rose and Master Wang had a chance for a short rest back at Bubba’s home. With daily visits to the local park for Taiji practice, a trip to Winston town for sightseeing, delicious American breakfasts at the local diners with Bubba and his father, and a haircut for Master Wang at the “Chop Shop Barber’s Shop”, it was a great rest from the rigours of the road!
DDA’s final workshop was another weekend workshop with Dr Jay Dunbar’s Magic Tortoise Taiji School in Chapel Hill and Durham, North Carolina.
This time the event was held at Sifu Kathy Hopwood’s “Safeskills” dojo in Durham, which offered a wonderfully peaceful and tranquil atmosphere and excellent amenities.
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The workshop was attended by well over 30 participants, the largest group so far, which included many of Dr Jay’s students and teachers for his school, as well as many old friends such as Steve Doob, Sarah Llewellyn, Jim Lauderdale, and Kalila who came all the way up from Georgia to attend this seminar after coming to Jeff Cook’s workshop in Big Canoe.
The weekend seminar kicked off on Saturday 24th August with joint mobility exercises, tendon stretching & sinew elongation exercises, 2-person joint mobility and sensitivity exercises, and dantian cultivation exercises, integrated with dantian energy work used in the form and “Grasp the bird’s tail sequence”.
In the evening, Dr Jay, several of his students and DDA’s old friends, Bubba, Steve, Jim and Sarah went for a delicious Indian buffet banquet, featuring a live performance on the sitar. ?
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On Sunday 25th August, the seminar began with a review of Saturday’s material, then pushing hands practice, particularly working on Master Shou Guan Shun’s large drill push hands, the “ward off, rollback, press, push” pattern that is standard in China, and finally with Wu Style 13 Pattern push hands.
As many of the participants were not familiar with the standard pattern, we spent some time familiarizing everyone with this pattern, before moving onto the Wu Style patterns, which are based around and an extension of the standard pattern.
The workshop time passed too quickly, as ever there were a thousand more things we wanted to cover, thank you to everyone for making the workshop such a joy!
Thank you to Dr Jay and his wife Kathleen for their hospitality in accommodating us on Sunday evening and for arranging everything so successfully for us, we really appreciated it!
Thank you to all Dr Jay’s students, assistant teachers and gongfu brothers, especially Laoma, (who came especially on Saturday, even though he is recovering from a recent heart operation) for their support and enthusiasm, and to Sifu Kathy Hopwood for letting us use her excellent facility “Safeskills” dojo, as well as for taking so many photographs for us at the seminar. (Some of which are published here on the DDA website)?
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Everyone had a wonderful time and we really appreciate Dr Jay and Bubba’s assistance in arranging everything for us so smoothly and for making the weekend seminar pass so enjoyably.
Overall, Rose and Master Wang had an absolutely marvelous time in the USA.
Thank you to everyone who was involved in helping DDA co-organize our events in the States, including Julie Netti and Jolanda from Netticare, Eugene Gaudreau and Jim Winner from Oriental Healing Arts Association, Mike Gentile from Tai Chi Mike & Inner Power Fitness, Ray Ferrer from the American Kempo Karate Association, Jeff Cook from Dragon Cloud Tai Chi School, Dr Jay Dunbar from the Magic Tortoise Tai Chi School and of course Bubba Powell.
We thank everyone for their hard work and efforts on our behalf and for helping the seminars be such a success.
Thanks to all the students and participants who attended and supported our workshops, we hope everyone had a great time and found them of benefit for their practice.
DDA looks forward to seeing everyone again next year to work on some more Taiji theories and energy cultivation.
Good luck to everyone in their practice this coming year and see you all again next autumn!?