The Vital Force Archive

Sharon Sirkis collects four TCC laughs, from a plumber who found waterfall music anything but soothing to a teacher candidate joking about the KGB over an autographed brochure.

Lanni Lantery recounts a 2003 TCC presentation where built-up Chi made her karate demonstration so fast she split her student's groin cup, plus a beginner's George Clooney remark during Pulling in the Energy.

Tara Stiles recounts coaxing travel companions into doing T'ai Chi Chih in airports before long flights to Australia, and choosing grounding movements like Bass Drum in a cramped courtroom corridor.

Sharon Sirkis and Kathy Grassel collect classroom mix-ups and comebacks, from a college student renaming Rocking Motion "Rocking Horse" to a retirement center resident asking permission to complain about the cold.

Beverly J. Miles describes a year of practising Seijaku and arrives at the questions she still cannot answer, about holding the breath during hold fast, alternating sides in the Joy Song, and which movements are omitted.

Sharon Sirkis Columbia collects three teaching mishaps, including a retirement community student whose hearing aid batteries died mid-class and a college student who decided Pulling in the Energy causes heart attacks.

An invitation to the 50th anniversary TCC Teacher Conference in Albuquerque, July 25-28, 2024, with registration at $495, followed by Sharon Sirkis's five class anecdotes from senior centers and a college group.

Sharon Sirkis Columbia recounts three classroom moments from 2001: a reluctant husband who called his practice "T'ai Chi - Cha Cha Cha," a quip to Justin about "umm" versus "OM," and her own trip up the stairs.

Sharon Sirkis, in a piece reprinted from June 2001, used a slow winter in her classes to go within, then coaxed a squirrel across a parking lot and read its antics as a message: sit still, leap, discard the garbage.

Sharon Sirkis collects four jokes first printed in March 2001, including a student named Murray who joked about the draft board and a beginner worried she was doing variations on the variations.

Diana Daffner mistook Bass Drum for a drum beaten on top, substituted the image of caressing a tree trunk, and later told beginners the story when teaching the movement.

Rebecca Paulson turned a snow day into imagery of snowballs for every circular movement and ball of energy, then pretended Working the Pulley launched them at a seniors class; Linda Braga adds how ten Chinese-speaking beginners learned by watching alone.

Sharon Sirkis reprints four classroom jokes from December 2000, including a senior worried his big belly would stall the waist's engine and a hubcap that became the Seventh Healing Sound.

Debby McLister recounts teaching Bass Drum in her first beginner class, where a fist-and-release hand exercise worked until week two, so she brought 12-inch balloons to keep hands cupped and apart.

Sharon Sirkus collects four moments of classroom comedy, from an over-achieving teacher candidate over-rotating her waist to a student whose cracking joints sounded like clicking castanets.

Ron Richardson turns five things his parents told him as a child, from "Pick up your feet" to "Stand on your own two feet," into practical reminders for TCC students about posture, stepping, breathing and independence.

April Leffler compares the t'an t'ien to a dog walker and the arms to the dogs, then describes trying the analogy in class, including students whose hands reached up Daughter on the Mountaintop before the center moved.

Sharon Sirkis of Columbia, Maryland collects classroom moments: two seniors interlocking fingers during Around the Platter, one wanting to push away worries, and a student pulling taffy at red lights.

Lynne Roberts recounts moving from a dancing career and USO shows into TCC, her one-on-one preparation with Corinn Codye, and the 1988 Morro Bay accreditation where Justin interrupted her presentation.

Linda Braga's rhyming poem questions a practice mirror about stance, weight shift, heels down and relaxed wrists, until the comparing stops, ego drops away and the flow arrives.

Sharon Sirkis collects four classroom moments, including Ruth's shaking key-ring bracelet, silly putty mistaken for chewing gum during Pulling Taffy, and a student who called Anugama's music a funeral march.

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.

Sharon Sirkis logs a fretful morning minute by minute until an insistent hunch sends her to the cable guide, where the 8:00 film is "Excess Baggage," followed by student accounts of Daniel Pienciak's June 2021 Seijaku weekend.

Lorraine Lepine catalogues a T'ai Chi Chih intensive entirely in words beginning with R, from revisiting movement basics with a beginner's mind to remembering she is not alone in the journey.

Trish Winger balanced a hardcover book on her head during class to demonstrate a still torso, and found her students' backs straightened and their movements grew smoother.

Sharon Sirkus collects three classroom moments: a Senior Center group breaking into "Down in the Valley," an Aspenwood resident asking to be poked more, and a student who skipped practice and put her shirt on backwards.

Sharon Sirkis collects five teaching mishaps from her early years, including a senior center student who wanted to push away his wife and a chat attempted with a man on silent retreat.

Trish Winger's students kept missing the mark on Working the Pulley, so she watched herself in the mirror and recast the movement as a pie throwing machine, with one pie handed over after another.

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.

Sharon Sirkis collects three classroom moments: a student telling her late, flustered teacher to get grounded, a class inventing its own Six Healing Sounds, and Howard's jigsaw puzzle Show and Tell.