The Vital Force Archive

Adria Neumann's pyramid poem names T'ai Chi Chih as swirling silent strength, bubbling springs beneath the feet, and inner music waking joy's pervasive response.

Timothy Stuetz urges teachers unsettled by Steve Ridley's resignation to attend the July 25-27 conference anyway, promising eight to ten group movement sessions, Joel Andrews' golden harp, a tea ceremony, and his own post-conference Meditation Intensive.

Carmen Brocklehurst recommends Justin Stone's audio tape "Serene Nature," used in her classes and on the national PBS series, saying it recreates the serenity of a Japanese garden she visited with him.

Tori Fiori led conference attendees in a Native American blessing drawn from the closing portion of the four-hour Eagle Ceremony, using chant, tone and the pointing of an Eagle feather before the candlelight dance ritual.

Steve Ridley recalls his T'ai Chi Ch'uan master asking students to let go and give full attention so he could move them through the forms, then offers classroom ideas: soothing music, informal talk, gentle breathing, a circle of Rocking Motion, and pausing when frustration builds.

Patty Campbell OSF rose earlier each spring morning to practice with her bedroom window open, using the chirping of newborn fledglings as her music, and closes with a poem on hunger for life.

Sr. Antonia Cooper describes how she and Meara Joy Norice created the Saturday night candle ritual in Denver, with a flower mandala, Justin passing the light, and 125 teachers moving together.

Paula Favorito practised each morning at 7:30 on the beach across from her Victorian inn in Cape May, with ocean waves for music, when fifteen playful dolphins appeared offshore.

Nancy Kennedy, accredited in May 1995, practised TCC mentally through an hour-long MRI and the nurse's screen registered the change, then watched a nursing home patient with dementia and her own mother in Florida grow quiet during practice.

Dan Fiore recounts Don Fiore's third T'ai Chi Chih retreat in the high desert above Tucson, where twenty-five people practised, discussed lasting relationships, hiked to petroglyphs and heard thirty Tibetan bells.

Beverly McFarland describes her fourth-class Taffies and silent practice, Diana and Richard Daffner report free beach practice with dolphins and Diana's flute tape, and Hope Ridley balances quick learners with two students who have MS.

Steve Ridley condenses flow into a single line, proposing that everyone is capable of dancing well when they connect with music that genuinely moves them.

Rosalind Braga recounts the Saturday evening talent show at Vallombrosa, where Justin Stone played improv jazz, Richard Brier read from "Chi Lanka," and Lia Ridley closed with Romanian gypsy dancing and drumming.

Carmen Brocklehurst's pyramid poem, dated August 15, 1994, moves from dreams alive with music to the poised standing start of the movements, called simple, graceful and beautiful.

Joanne Sultar traced students' foot positions onto large paper bags so those struggling with the stance could take a made-to-order guide home, and lays out her hour-and-a-half class schedule.

Esther Kieffer leads four and five year olds with disabilities in Rocking Motion each morning to Daniel Kobialka music, ending with a minute of silence in the dark before the school day begins.

Lavana Kilborn recounts being pushed into teacher accreditation by demanding Port Alberni seniors, then teaching Elderhostel introductions and a volunteer wheelchair class at an intermediate care home where she omits the Taffys and relies on music.

Jean Katus draws on a Minnesota Public Radio interview with Lakota musician Kevin Locke, whose work with the Native flute preserves oral-tradition courtship songs and restores dignity to a dispirited people.

Mary Naidu reports on the first T'ai Chi Chih class in Hong Kong, held at the Personal Growth Centre in February 1992, where six of ten international students completed the twenty movements.

Steve Ridley reviews Justin Stone's piano recording "Night Bloom," calling it his favorite, and describes playing Justin's tapes while writing and painting at home, with the house plants responding.

A roundup of the talent show at the Minnesota conference, where Vicki Brodie, Barbara Lefforge and friends sang TCC parodies, Jim Celmayster offered "If I Were a T'ai Chi Man," and Linda McKenzie led the closing chant.

Justin Stone announces "The Reflective Eye," his new piano recording on tape, the first he has been pleased with for both sound and playing, available from Good Karma Publishers.

Lois Mahaney hunted everywhere for a poem she needed for a calligraphy deadline, gave up and did her daily practice instead, then walked straight to her purse and found it.

Nancy Farnham's abstract for an AHAA Innovation of the Year award describes how a grant-funded T'ai Chi Chih program at a Fargo nursing home grew beyond its twelve targeted residents and calmed the 4:00 p.m. agitation hour.

Esther Kieffer reports 21 students since October in Cedar Falls and describes starting each day in her preschool classroom for children with handicaps with Rocking Motion to Fragrance of a Dream.