T’ai Chi: Meditation in Motion

Staff writer

Reprinted from The Desert Sun, Living section, Monday, April 23, 1990

This exercise class in a Palm Springs park begins with a series of quiet, elegant stretches — stretches with names like “fish crawls the Earth,” “swallow sweeps down” and “rhinoceros turns head.”

There’s no high-energy music booming from a stereo system inside a sweaty gym or people in neon-colored, high-fashion exercise spandex suits.

Just birds whistling to one another in the cool, outside morning air, and people dressed in baggy cotton pants and t-shirts.

Saturday morning’s T’ai Chi Ch’uan class, taught by Palm Springs doctor Jacques Moramarco, also an acupunturist, is one of the few taught in the Coachella Valley.

The Joslyn Cove Community Senior Center in Palm Desert hosted it’s first T’ai Chi Chih class Saturday, taught by Tais Hoffman of San Clemente. The center is considering whether to offer this type of class on a regular basis.

But regardless of the form of T’ai Chi, the Oriental “meditation in movement” exercise is quickly gaining popularity.

Studies have shown that daily practice of Tai Chi — “chi” being the lifeforce through the body — lowers the blood pressure, increases the immune system efficiency and relieves stress.

The National Institute on Aging recently launched a $2.9 million study of the effects that Tai Chi has on Americans over the age of 60 who practice it.

Tai Chi practicers say they feel more in tune with their bodies and their spirit and have learned to increase their concentration.

The difference between the T’ai Chi Ch’uan, the oldest form, and T’ai Chi Chih, created in 1974, is the simplicity of the movements and the reason for studing the Oriental art form.

T’ai Chi Ch’uan is the umbrella term for several styles that date back more than 5,000 years. The number of movements varies with each style — the “Six-Harmony, Eight-Method” one of the oldest methods, for example, has more than 500 movements. The popular Yang style has 108 movements. Both take several years to learn and many more to master.

Moramarco’s master teacher is 80 years old and has been practicing for about 70 years.

“You need to have a lot of patience to practice T’ai Chi Ch’uan,” said Moramarco, who teaches the “Six-Harmony, Eight-Method” and the Yang styles.

Most of the movements in T’ai Chi Ch’uan are done with the legs slightly bent, which gives the legs an isometric workout. Additionally, some of the movements are said to heal certain body parts.

Taught and practiced correctly, many of the movements in all forms for T’ai Chi Ch’uan can be used for self-defense. T’ai Chi Chih movements, however, cannont be used for self-defense.

T’ai Chi Ch’aun also requires more discipline than T’ai Chi Chih.

Bob Ohlemann, captain of Cathedral City’s Police Department, said he got interested in T’ai Chi Ch’uan about two years ago. After research, he found Moramarco and joined his class about five months ago. He said the only other teacher of Moramarco’s styles lives in Orange County.

“It’s about the purist form of exercise there is,” Ohlemann said. “When you’re over 40, you don’t want to pound your body to death.”

But many people don’t have the patience or dedication to learn T’ai Chi’s long form.

That’s why Justin Stone, a Carmel artist and musician, created T’ai Chi Chih in the early 1970s. He taught T’ai Chi Ch’uan for many years and found that some people, especially older students, had difficulty in executing some movements and nearly everyone had difficulty remembering the long sequence.

Stone developed a series of 20 movements designed to yield the same stress-reducing beneifts without the degree of difficulty. He called his style T’ai Chi Chih, meaning “knowledge of the supreme ultimate.”

He began teaching it in 1974, and it has blossomed in popularity.

“It gets your lifeforce flowing,” said Hoffman. “You have amazing results.

“It’s shorter and the benefits are felt sooner.”

There were about 10 who attended Hoffman’s class at the Joslyn Cove Community Senior Center on Saturday.

“This is fluid and this is what I can do,” said Dorothy Goodie of Rancho Mirage who participated in the senior center’s class.

Center officials said this was a trial class to test the interest and they will decide later whether to offer this weekly.

The T’ai Chi Chih style is especially suitable for senior citizens because of its simplicity.

Dr. Evan Hadley of the National Institute on Aging said his group is studying T’ai Chi on the premis that, “frailty and impaired strength, balance and endurance are not inevitable parts of old age.”

Where to go for T’ai Chi:

Tais Hoffman, of San Clemente, and the Joslyn Cove Community Senior Center in Palm Desert is testing the interest for a class in T’ai Chi Chih. Information: the center or Hoffman.

Jacques Moramarco, a Palm Springs acupunturist. Current class is full. Class limited to serious T’ai Chi Ch’uan students only.

“The Short Form By Terry Dunn,” a videocassette of the popular shortened Yang style of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, $49.95, available through Wayfarer Publications.

“Joy Through Movement,” a video cassette of T’ai Chi Chih by Justin Stone, the form’s originator, $39.95, available through Wayfarer or Hoffman.

Tai Chi magazine, a publication for all forms of Tai Chi. Write: Wayfarer Publications.

Internal Arts magazine, a publication for martial arts and Tai Chi.