Pulling Taffy: A Love Affair

I’ve experienced what many people feel when trying to learn Pulling Taffy and its variations: frustration, uncertainty and sometimes a desire to avoid it altogether. I would like to offer a word or two about the impact of saying: “I just love Pulling Taffy.” This simple affirmation, I tell my students, is the beginning of a love affair with the movement.

The hip swivel involved in the movement is absolutely essential to its execution and ease of flow. In his DVD, Justin Stone describes it as the hips making “a small circular motion as the waist turns, and we shift the weight from one side to the other.”

The importance of this simple hip swivel motion is little understood. For years, it was thought as a simple shift of the body from side to side. However, the small circular motion of the hips is crucial – so that the shoulders don’t end up doing the work. The joy of learning the hip swivel lies in the feeling of stillness in the upper body, in allowing the generation of Chi from the waist and hips. This Chi then flows up the body to the arms and down to the hands as each hand passes over the other.

It is worth taking time to come into this wonderful state of stillness, joy and love. Our being requires it, so that our interactions in the world are generated from the simple circular motion of the tan t’ien. It moves us to love and share the Chi.

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