Joy Thru Movement (September 1994)

Making News

Excerpt from the “Healthier Living” section of the November 1993 Merced Sun-Star (Story by Debra Salonen) covered the entire front page plus carry-over to page two.

George Balliet moves with the fluid grace of kelp swaying in a tidal pool. With his knees slightly bent, his body pivots and turns like a dancer anchored by a spider’s thread of gravity spun from the core of the Earth. The morning sun glints off the rings on his fingers as his hands paint artful pictures on an imaginary canvas.

A slender crystal, suspended on a silver chain about his neck, sparkled in the morning light as George Balliet focused on the movement, giving himself over to the meditative world of inner quiet. He seemed impervious to the outside distractions of traffic and a nearby generator chugging away. He appeared to move into a centered, cloistered place. A world of his own.

“When I first started this I was in so much pain I couldn’t even lift my arms over my head. I had a 2-by-12 hit me on the top of the head and compress my fifth, sixth and seventh vertebrae. I was totally depressed. I’m talking about stress on a level I never knew before.” He said the stress from his former construction business was minor compared to the stress of believing he would never work again. Just the word ‘handicapped’ alone was enough to be depressing. He said for one year he was caught up in the medical world’s attempt to bring relief in the form of therapy and medication, but nothing helped.

“I couldn’t get any relief from doctors. All they wanted to give me was drugs and things like that, then I heard about a T’ai Chi Chih class at a (Bay Area) senior citizen center,” he said. “So, the first day I went to the class, I almost turned around and walked away, but I did that first movement, and the relief felt was immediate. I found myself totally doing this every day and I felt good about it,” Balliet said.

As he became more involved, he learned that in order to go further in the practice he would have to become a teacher. “So, I became a teacher,” he said.

He reached out and produced a bright orange Slinky toy. “I use this very simple prop to teach about “chi,” or one’s internal breath. When you’re sitting here, you’re balanced,” he said, cupping the toy in the palm of his hand. He tilted his hand and the ringed wire cascaded like a flashy waterfall into the palm of his other hand. “When you move, the chi separates. This transference of energy is the key to obtaining the healthful benefits of T’ai Chi Chih,” Balliet said. “T’ai Chi Chih gives people a chance to get quiet with themselves…allowing one to find serenity in the midst of activity, joy through movement.”

George Balliet teaches T’ai Chi Chih at Bob Hart Square in Merced, CA.