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This year, DDA’s Rose Oliver & Master Wang Ming Bo held workshops and classes in Baltimore area’s Westminster and Sykesville, in Maryland; Winston Salem and Durham in North Carolina; and in Big Canoe, near Atlanta, Georgia.
Starting in the Baltimore area, DDA friend and previous 2013 camp participant, Mr. Larry Kinsler, along with his teacher Sifu Jerry Diamond of the Westminster Taiji Association, arranged with DDA to host a series of workshops and classes for their students and other local Taiji enthusiasts.
The first weekend workshop was held on 26th & 27th July, with the morning sessions devoted to joint mobility training, (as taught in DDA’s Joint Mobility Training DVD) tendon stretching & joint opening exercises and dantian cultivation training, (as taught in DDA’s Training DVDs now available) and with the afternoons focusing on taiji form corrections and push hands training, in addition to a Tuina hands-on massage session, instructing the participants on different massage techniques and osteopathic-type modalities.
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The afternoon taiji form sessions were particularly devoted to the group’s 24 Step Taiji practice, as well as “ Grasp the bird’s Tail” integrated dantian and energy work; pushing hands practice mainly concentrated on the 13 push hands and basic patterns.
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During the workshop, Sifu Jerry Diamond provided a delicious repast for the group, with fresh fruit and salad, and cakes from other members of the association; as well as treating us all to a wonderful rendition of “If I had a hammer” and other folk songs, played on his acoustic guitar. It was a great group and wonderful atmosphere, thank you to Jerry and Larry for organizing everything and to all the participants for their enthusiastic and warm, friendly participation.
Whilst in Baltimore, Larry took Rose and Master Wang on a tour of some of the city’s most famous cultural and scenic spots, including Fort McHenry, with its historic links to repelling the ‘English invasion’ in the 1800’s and start of the Star-Spangled Banner; a small but bustling Chinatown; and inner harbour and boardwalk. With its historic and cultural heritage, it was a great day and a highly enjoyable trip and the views from the tower, overlooking the bay and the whole of the city were breathtaking. Whilst in Maryland, Rose and Master Wang also got to see some of the areas’ beautiful natural scenery, with walks among some of the parks and American Civil War landmarks, and ocean fishing on Chesapeake Bay, as well as swimming and fishing in some of the areas’ lakes and rivers.?
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After Baltimore, Sykesville and Westminster, Rose and Master Wang next headed to meet up again with Dr Jay Dunbar and his Magic Tortoise Taiji School, in Durham, North Carolina.
In the evening before the workshop, Dr Jay and several of his students and DDA’s old friends, invited Rose and Master Wang for a delicious Indian buffet banquet, again featuring a live performance on the sitar.
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This year the weekend workshop in Durham on 9th – 10th August focused purely on taiji push hands, with the 20 or so participants working solidly through the basic push hands pattern of ward-off, roll back, press and push; then the 13 push hands patterns, covering about 8 of the 13 patterns.
It was a great workshop, with a friendly and enthusiastic atmosphere, completely non-competitive, and very relaxed.
Thanks again to Dr Jay and Kathleen for arranging everything and to Kathy Hopwood and Safeskills for their wonderful venue.
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After Durham, we met up with Bubba Powell again, to stay at his family home in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
Bubba, who’s another very old and dear friend of DDA, Rose and Master Wang, teaches Taiji classes in Winston and this year invited Rose & Master Wang to meet his students, some of whom have attended workshops in the past, and give them advice and corrections for the traditional Yang Style form.
Bubba, who’s studied with DDA in Shanghai, is leading the students through the form Rose & Master Wang learned through Grandmaster Dong Bin, and so DDA has its first “Taiji grandchildren” in the US!?
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Classes were held at Bubba’s home, so the atmosphere was very relaxed, with Chinese tea to make it more conducive to serious practice of Taiji and friendly gatherings among fellow Taiji enthusiasts!
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Our time in Winston was warm and comfortable thanks to Bubba and his father’s traditional Southern hospitality, another big thank you to both of them for making us feel so welcome and for opening their home to us!
Bubba and his father also organized a special Taiji Tea Party at the local church hall in Winston, which was a chance for taiji practitioners in the area to come and join our talk on taiji classic principles and the essence of Taiji Yin/Yang, 5 Elements and 8 Trigram theories and philosophy.
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Whilst at Bubba’s, we were also treated to a surprise visit by Bluegrass and Country singer, Jim Lauderdale of Nashville fame. Jim, who’s also a very old and dear friend of Rose’s, going back nearly 20 years, and a good friend and supporter of DDA over the years, came to Winston for some private tuition and form correction, plus invited us all to his one-man show and concert near Atlanta, Georgia on 22nd August, which happily coincided with DDA’s workshop in Alferetta, Georgia on 24th August.
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So, on 22nd August, Rose, Master Wang and Larry Kinsler set off for the 5-hour drive to Georgia for the Sunday seminar in Alferetta, a small town close to Jeff Cook’s home in Big Canoe resort, near Atlanta, just making it in time to catch Jim in concert at a packed venue, “Eddie’s Attic”, famous for its music events and great atmosphere.
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Joined by DDA friend Jeff Cook, of the Dragon Cloud Tai Chi School, and his family, everyone had a great time rocking to Jim’s music and his wonderfully friendly, fun performance! Thanks to Jim for inviting us all and for such a great time!
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Following Jim’s event, we headed to Jeff Cook’s home in the mountains at Big Canoe, ready for our second DDA workshop with Jeff.
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Jeff attended DDA’s 2009 workshops in Tennessee with Master Liu Ji Fa and the 2012 workshops in Asheville with Master Wang Ming Bo, and last year cooperated with DDA to put on a workshop in Georgia.
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Jeff and his family invited us for a delicious dinner in the Big Canoe National Forest Park Saturday evening, set in the Smoky Mountain ranges, where we sampled some typical southern American dishes, and enjoyed a wonderful view over the lakes and hills.
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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 sensitivity exercises, dantian cultivation exercises, integrated dantian and energy work, Master Dong Bin’s foundation exercises and push hands practice, particularly working on the basic pattern of “ward off, rollback, press, push” that is standard in China, plus several of the 13 push hands patterns.
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After the seminar, Jeff took Rose, Master Wang and Larry to a wonderful Chinese restaurant, where they served Guangdong dishes, which was a great send off and a fantastic end to our weekend in Georgia.
Thanks to Jeff and his family for their wonderful hospitality again and to everyone who helped and supported our seminar there. We loved seeing everybody again, and also enjoyed seeing so many old friends from afar like Dirga, and Kalila, who also supported us in Durham this year too.
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DDA’s final US workshop was an evening workshop with Sifu Jerry Diamond’s Westminster Taiji Association back in Maryland, held at a senior citizen’s retreat in a wonderfully tranquil atmosphere set in the rolling hills of Westminster.
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The workshop was attended by about 10 students, focusing mainly on form corrections, applications, dantian cultivation and a review of the material taught at the first workshop.
The class time passed too quickly, as ever, there were a thousand more things we wanted to cover, thank you to everyone for making the workshop so enjoyable!
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Everyone had a wonderful time and we really appreciated Sifu Jerry Diamond’s generosity of spirit and Larry Kinsler’s kindness and hospitality and assistance in arranging everything for us so smoothly and for making not just the weekend and evening seminars pass so pleasantly, but for taking such good care of us throughout our stay.
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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 Jerry Diamond from Westminster Tai Chi Association; Jeff Cook from Dragon Cloud Tai Chi School; Dr Jay Dunbar from the Magic Tortoise Tai Chi School; Larry Kinsler; and of course Bubba Powell.
We thank everyone for their hard work and efforts on our behalf and for helping the seminars be so much fun and a rewarding experience for everybody involved.
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.
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DDA looks forward to seeing everyone again next year to work on some more Taiji theories, traditional taiji form, push hands practice and energy cultivation.
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Good luck to everyone in their practice this coming year and see you all again next Autumn!
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