The Vital Force Archive

Judy Chancey and Sky Young-Wick outline the 2022 International Teachers' Conference on Zoom, themed Cultivating Wisdom, from the Friday Around the World Practice to Sandy McAlister's opening words, Seijaku mornings and breakout rooms.

Diana Daffner tripped on a curb, broke her elbow, and found she could approximate most T'ai Chi Chih movements with her arm in a cast, which came off after fourteen days.

Sue Bitney draws on Justin Stone's writings about circulating and balancing the Chi to argue that practice heals the practitioner and the world, citing students' reflections at their final 2021 practice.

Lisa Stroyan's notes from Sandy McAlister's monthly Zoom teacher practice cover December's discussion of movement order and January's on drop-in classes, with Zoom tips and handout suggestions.

Donna McElhose asked her current students to write welcome letters to future beginners, and they describe bad knees and a seated class, being the only male in the room, and the daily practice that finally made the movements make sense.

Lisa Otero, who sought accreditation only to have people to practice with, describes returning to teaching in summer 2021 after COVID and argues that group practice requires everyone to sync up, like musicians following a conductor.

JJ Johnson describes the room where he and his wife trained with Marie Dotts, including a jolt of polarity felt during seated Working the Pulley and a thick, slow-moving practice with nurse Holly Trenary.

Mary Cerullo substituted for Sr. Christa's seated Zoom class at the Franciscan Spiritual Center in Aston, and found the familiar main room empty of spirit before the center closed in June 2021.

Larry Tolbert moves through a Monday morning practice in a public grove, crows and playing children all around, and takes Justin Stone's line about the form coming not from but through him into his own poetry writing.

John Marquez recalls his father telling him, as the first-born of his generation, to set an example, and describes how nearly three years of T'ai Chi Chih practice answered the skeptics around him.

Hannah Hedrick describes how Paula Weiner kept T'ai Chi Chih alive through declining health, practising in bed on supplemental oxygen and showing a nurse the movements, supported by friends and cheerleader Howie Mogil.

Diana Hudson's Christmas parody recasts "The Night Before Christmas" with the WooWoos, her outdoor practice group at Veteran's Park, and a Santa pulled by honking wild geese who passes his COVID test before joining them.

Bruce Lee likens group practice to an orchestra, with the teacher as conductor and group t'an t'ien, where individual chi blends into a group chi greater than the number of people present.

Sandy McAlister announces that intensives become a prerequisite for accreditation, recalls Justin's change of mind about conference breakout sessions, and moves the Tuesday Zoom teacher practice to monthly Saturday discussions.

Gail Nieto describes how a walk in her garden brought the message "let it go," which grew into weekly Zoom discussions with students linking life lessons to TCC and into her conference presentation on five movements and concepts.

Lynne Roberts recounts saying yes to being master of ceremonies for the 2021 Zoom conference, which grew out of Lisa Stroyan's September 2020 email to an informal online practice group.

Host April Leffler collects participant accounts from Sandy McAlister's four-day Zoom intensive, including breakthroughs in the front and back weight shift, breakout group feedback, and one student's tearful Rocking Motion.

Laurin McDonald describes how Zoom sessions she and Lesley Nell run became a lifeline for isolated older UK students, and an anchor for her own bereavement after losing her husband in November 2020.

Marija Hillis recounts how COVID-19 closures pushed her new teaching from an uneven park to three friends' backyards, growing to four weekly classes and 24 masked, distanced students.

Judy Hendricks recalls Tuesday morning teacher practices at the TCC Center, where Justin Stone offered no new material, only corrections to bend the knees and turn the waist, and she still hears him on DVD.

Bryan Fain traces his first months as a beginner, from imitating his teacher and memorizing sequence to Marie Dotts' weekly group practice and a workshop with Bill Moore.

Lisa recounts how she and Sandy Roerig found students not among neighbors on their block but in a 55+ community meditation group, forming an outdoor practice group they named the Woo Woo Warriors.

Sue Kenney traces two decades of the St Francis of Assisi practice group in Sacramento, its pairing of T'ai Chi Chih with the Wednesday Taize service, and its members' own accounts of finding the practice.

John Marquez describes how a Seijaku class on Zoom with Dan Pienciak, and the oft-heard instruction to feel your feet on the floor, finally brought the timing of the weight shift into focus.

Jim Shorr collects November and December 2020 testimonials from Creekside Village residents who kept practicing through the COVID-19 shutdown, with balance the benefit nearly everyone named.

Kathleen McAlister describes Sunday morning group practice in a Philadelphia-area park through 2020, where flags, bees, motorcycle rallies, a political road rally and a track meet all tested her focus.

Linda Raye, who has had mobility issues since her teens, took up T'ai Chi Chih 25 years ago as a substitute for dancing, followed by beginners' letters thanking Justin Stone.

Mary Ann Johnson of Ponte Vedra Beach offers a New Year blessing in verse, wishing 365 days of deep joy and 525,600 minutes of peace to the TCC circle, sometimes gathered virtually.

Amy Moody rafted 200 miles through the Grand Canyon over 11 days and found the chi so strong that simply standing and centering set her fingers fluttering, teaching movements to fellow passengers along the way.

Benjamin Brisjar describes how Zoom transformed his class of isolated senior citizens in Pittsburg, California, into a community practicing six times a week with Carmen Brocklehurst, Lisa Stroyan and Lorraine Lepine.