Translations (译文)
Connections is available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Chinese. We are very grateful for our translators who volunteered to translate: Rubén Coirini, Daniela Famulari, Gennaro Ripa, Françoise Desagnat, Jean-Claude Miremont, Thilo Krienke, Davi Garritano, and Li Mingyang. Thank you very much! Here are the links to the other languages:
Welcome to Our New Members
I would like to welcome all new members who have recently joined Yang Family Tai Chi. Thank you for joining us and welcome to our tai chi family! I am happy you have chosen to join us and hope that you feel welcome and receive great value from your membership.
I hope that all members will have a long and fulfilling relationship with our association. For those members who have been with us through the years, I appreciate that you have chosen to stay with us as we continue to spread tai chi chuan worldwide to help humankind.
Sincerely,
Yang Jun
President
Upcoming Instructors Meeting
The next monthly instructors' meeting will be held June 17 at 10 am PDT (Seattle time zone). An email with the registration link will be sent prior to the event. Please plan to attend. It is always great to see everyone at these monthly Zoom meetings!
Online Teaching Evaluations
Applicants for instructor certification have a new option for their teaching evaluation. They can now be evaluated by an examiner accessing a live stream class using Zoom technology. This live stream evaluation is an additional choice for Associate, Certified and Academy Instructor candidates. For more information, please contact the Training Standards Department at ts-dept@yangfamilytaichi.com.
Master Yang Jun's Online Traditional Form Seminar
At the end of April, Master Yang Jun began teaching a comprehensive refinements seminar on the Traditional Form. Classes (in English) are taught via Zoom twice per week. Recordings are available if you can't attend the live classes. The seminar is divided into three parts:
April 28 - June 26
August 4 - September 11
October 6 - November 6
In addition to beginning the Traditional Form, the first part of the seminar focuses on understanding tai chi theory to improve and deepen tai chi practice and includes fundamental tai chi exercises to help participants learn to apply theory in their practice. The seminar also invites participants to ask Master Yang Jun questions and interact with each other through Google Classroom.
This is a wonderful opportunity to work with Master Yang! You can join now and receive access to recordings of all the classes you missed.
Online Tai Chi Chuan Forum - September 17-18, 2021
On December 17, 2020, UNESCO officially included tai chi chuan in the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List. To celebrate this inclusion, the "1st International Taiji Science Online Forum and World Intangible Cultural Heritage Taijiquan Online Masters Exhibition" will be held September 17-18, 2021. The purpose of this forum is to deepen tai chi wellness research and serve human health needs. The event features a variety of forum speakers and tai chi masters, including Master Yang Jun.
Final registration deadline is July 30, 2021.
See website for more information.
Virtual Classroom: Saber Seminar - July 2021
In this seminar, you will learn:
- The entire saber form in detail and how traditional Chinese culture influences the names of the movements.
- Basic training (jibengong) for a better understanding of the weapon and body coordination.
- Saber techniques
- Safety protocols
- How to care for your saber.
Instructor: Rubén Coirini, Academy Instructor, Argentina
Language: English and Spanish
Dates: July 2/2021 – July 31/ 2021 plus Q&A session 8/2/2021
Registration: See website for more information
Yang Family Tai Chi Continuing Education:
This course is eligible for 10 credits. Certificates of attendance will be issued. Certificates can be used for Instructor Certification Renewal, Associate Instructor application, and Teacher Academy credits.
Footwork Positions
Klaus Kaysers (Associate Instructor in Köln, Germany) has created summaries of the end positions of the footwork in the Tai Chi Kung (10-movement) Form, the 13-Movement Form, the 16-Movement Form, the Essential Form, the Senior Form, and the Traditional Form. He kindly offered to share links to these summaries for our readers. Below are the Tai Chi Kung Form and the Essential Form. The rest will be published in the next two newsletters. A big thank you to Klaus for sharing his work!
Download links:
Tai Chi Kung Form
Essential Form
World Tai Chi and Qigong Day 2021
World Tai Chi and Qigong Day is held each year on the last Saturday in April. People in hundreds of cities in over 80 countries practice tai chi or qigong between 10 - 11 a.m. local time to help contribute to creating a healthier and calmer world and to educate people about the benefits of practicing these arts. This year World Tai Chi and Qigong Day took place on April 24. Many of our association's centers and schools participated. Some of them shared their photos:
Velletri, Rome, Italy
Yang Family Tai Chi School: La Tigre e L'Acqua
Directors: Nino Tirelli & Serena Masi
São Paulo, Brazil
Yang Family Tai Chi School
Director: Valéria Sanchez
Stockton, CA, USA
Yang Family Tai Chi Center
Director: Bing Hui
Whitehorse, Canada
Yang Family Tai Chi School
Director: Pamela Boyde
Baia Mare, Romania
Yang Family Tai Chi School
Directors: Carmen & Ciprian Ghise
Online Tai Chi Marathon
Laoshi Alexander Gómez, director of the "Centro de Cultura Oriental Círculo del Dragon", Yang Family Tai Chi School in Bogotá, Colombia, organized the First Online Tai Chi Yang Family Marathon which took place April 24 on World Tai Chi & Qigong Day.
Twenty-four instructors from 8 countries (Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Brazil) participated during 24 hours of programming, offering virtual classes for all Spanish and Portuguese-speaking people. More than 20,000 people attended the event which showed the power of tai chi to be a common language for the unity and brotherhood of human beings.
Classes for the event are available on the Dragon Circle Tai Chi Facebook page.
To see the summary of the event you can access this link:
Tai Chi Practice During the Pandemic - Kiel, Germany
Since March 2020, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, like many other governments, has been ordering various lockdown measures because of the pandemic. In response to these measures, we relocated our tai chi activities completely outdoors in the Schleswig-Holstein state capital Kiel. The classes became open-air practice sessions in the morning, and later classes were added in the evening hours. This way, we were able to continue our practice together without gaps, although a few participants did not find an adequate opportunity among these sessions, due to scheduling or health reasons.
The weather was kind to us in spring and summer 2020. Very few sessions were canceled due to weather conditions. In the fall, we moved back inside, and when tougher lockdown measures came again in November, we continued the classes. The participants in sports clubs and senior citizens' facilities were less lucky - they had to wait for months before in-person training sessions took place again, and then only under restricted conditions.
Now, well within the pandemic's second year, things appear almost normal the way they are - yet, they are not. With the combined forces of yin and yang, tai chi will remain a permanent fixture now, and in the future - a steady guide and an ever-shining light in seemingly dark times.
Thilo Krienke
Yang Family Tai Chi School Director
Kiel, Germany
August 2021 Seminar - France
Learn tai chi or deepen your tai chi practice in a warm and friendly atmosphere with a team of certified Yang Family Tai Chi instructors in an exceptional setting in the heart of the Valley of the Dordogne. Enjoy green tourism, gastronomy, and rich historical heritage.
Share with us this unique opportunity to combine your holiday with the discovery and practice of internal Chinese arts.
The seminar is co-organized by the Paris Yang Family Tai Chi Center, the Toulouse YFTC Center and the Lyon Yang Family Tai Chi School.
Video link : https://youtu.be/vGOs6C_V_y8
More information and registration on website.
Join Our Association
Become a member of Yang Family Tai Chi! For more information about membership benefits and how to apply, please visit our membership page on our website.
Posting to Yang Family Tai Chi's Social Media Pages
Want to post news on Yang Family Tai Chi's social media pages? Yang Family Tai Chi would like to keep its social media pages updated with current information from the association, centers, and schools. Ana Horta is managing Yang Family Tai Chi's social media pages on Facebook and Instagram. If you would like to share news on Yang Family Tai Chi's social media pages, please send an email to Ana at anamaghorta@gmail.com.
VISIT YANG FAMILY TAI CHI'S SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
Journal Gem
"The Balance of Nature: Basic Principles and Features of Tai Chi Chuan" by Lu Shengli. Issue #24 (2009), pages 8-11.
This article can be found in our Members-Only Area on our website.
Contribute to Our Journal
Previous Issue
Did you miss the last issue of Connections? You can read it here.
Next Issue of Connections
Carolyn Fung, Editor
Connections is published in March, June, September, and December. We publish association news and school news (upcoming events, recent past events, awards, other news) but not general school advertisements.
The next issue of Connections will be published in September 2021. Please send any announcements to me at carolyn@yangfamilytaichi.com by August 15, 2021.
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