The Vital Force Archive

Anita Vestal traces her teaching from a York health fair discovery in 2001 through classes in Taos, Austin, a Florida 55-plus community, and Spanish-language courses for Costa Rican mountain villagers.

Sheryl Adair moves through a full practice on a screened porch at Lake Burton in August, noting how the rain builds to a downpour and eases again with each successive movement.

Dixie Adeniran describes her sunrise practice in the back yard, birds bathing in the Buddha fountain during Bird Flaps Its Wings, and circles within circles leading to Cosmic Consciousness Pose; followed by Pyramid Poems on Nei Kung and sleep.

Dorene Krause practices on a windy October morning at Dennisport on Cape Cod, anchoring her feet against the gusts, matching her movements to the sea, and watching a gliding seagull that offered no resistance.

Diana Daffner recounts meeting Dr. Alan Dattner at her weekly sunset practice on Siesta Beach, where he described how Around the Platter Variation warmed his cold, constricted fingers and now helps his Raynaud's patients.

Mary Wichmann's early morning walk against a strong southeast wind becomes the heavy air analogy in practice, and an argument for starting fresh with a new season rather than waiting for New Year's.

Ron Richardson recounts practising on shifting Florida sand at sunset, then a conference session where Daniel Pienciak's altered resting position, hands hung at the sides, provoked objections about changing Justin Stone's form.

Donna McElhose recounts the 2013 conference at St. John's University, from Kimiko Gunji's tea ceremony and the Dances of Universal Peace to KG expanding a 20-teacher video shoot to 45 slots.

Jean Markey and her students spotted a praying mantis on a park bench before practising on the labyrinth at Bon Secours, prompting her to look up its meaning in Ted Andrews' Animal Speak.

Donna J. Moore offers the verse she recites while practicing Pulling In The Energy, gathering vigor from red berries, strength from rocks, flexibility from fir trees and joy from the sun.

Bo Waddell recounts two outdoor practices: a homeless man in a downtown Atlanta park who said "Thank you for dancing for me," and a New Mexico sunrise practice watched by deer and rabbits.

Maryjean Owens took a summer break from group class and practiced alone at dusk in a secluded park with her Maltese, Babette, opera in her ear buds, before returning to the group and starting Seijaku.

Vanjie Bratt and Carol Mockovak describe teaching at the Becketwood Cooperative since 2003 and the seventh summer of outdoor practice at Hidden Falls park beside the Mississippi, herons and jumping fish included.

Diana Daffner reprints her July 1992 meditation on what teachers do for students, and adds testimonials from Maia Shafer and Philippe Blanc about twenty years of sunset practice on Siesta Key Beach.

Dale Koistinen credits resuming T'ai Chi Chih with his wife, three times a week, for going 15-0 at the World Champion Horseshoe Pitching Tournament in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Patty Clement's prose poem watches koi and lotus blossoms in the Chinese Garden, followed by dozens of pyramid poems on joy written by 2012 conference attendees and compiled by Roberta Taggart.

Judy Tretheway's poem finds a hollowed, charred stump inviting Cosmic Consciousness Pose outdoors, followed by Pyramid Poems on silence from Jerry Granock, Sheryl Adair, Joyce Shar, Dora Derzon and Dianne Moody.

Jon and Barbie Fortune describe six months of weekly practice in the Portland Rose Test Garden and how letting go carried over into clarity, planning and creative vision in their international correspondence chess games.

Becky Watkins taught T'ai Chi Chih at two conferences for grief professionals and bereaved parents, drawing on her son's death, and dolphins surfaced in Biscayne Bay during Push Pull.

On Justin Stone's 95th birthday, the writer and a friend improvised a ceremony at the Bosque by the Rio Grande, launching a bark boat that snagged on a tree until stone and petal fell away.

Terry Slaney watched five cranes foraging silently in a wheat field on her drive to class, and found in their balanced movement a lesson in theme and variation, softness and continuity.

Mark Tucker strings the names of the T'ai Chi Chih movements into a single day's narrative, from a breezy sunrise Rocking Motion through taffy makers at a summer circus fair to a noontime Cosmic Consciousness Pose of gratitude.

Ron Richardson practices each morning among oak, pine and magnolia trees, naming Six Healing Sounds his new favorite movement as geese squawk overhead and his immune system grows stronger.

Marjorie CT recounts a silent group practice on the grass at a goodbye picnic at Mt St Francis convent, where an entire short play came to her, followed by two more.

Steve Marsh previews the July 5-8, 2012 Portland conference, listing nearby day trips from the Pacific beaches to the Columbia Gorge and announcing a pre-conference group practice at the Lan Su Chinese Garden.

Suanne Lewis describes falling in love three times over: with a new beginners' class reaching Carry the Ball to the Side, with patients at a western Maryland psychiatric hospital, and with an outdoor community practice in the Allegany Mountains.

Terry Jennings practices every morning on her lanai facing the mountains, clouds and flowers, and describes how joy overflows by the end of the first movement, calling TCC her best friend.

Pearl Kadota recounts two years of Monday classes at the Sumo Pavilion above Hilo Bay, from meeting T'ai Chi Chih through a diabetes support group to leading peer practice when Hannah is away.

Theresa Brown's rhyming verse traces her first eight awkward weeks of class through nine months of weekly sessions and park practices, with thanks to her instructor Pete Gregory.

Julie Buffalo describes a second year of teaching a well-attended class in a green park on the hospital campus where she works, where the earth seems to rise up to meet practitioners' feet.