In the spring of my senior year in college I first saw Tai Chi being practiced on the Reed College campus. I was completely smitten. In graduate school I began my practice by learning Wu Style in the school of Master John Leong (an extraordinary Kung Fu and Tai Chi master teaching in the Seattle Chinatown district). After 3 years, I switched to the Yang Style with a young American practitioner, Harrison Moretz. I have been practicing and learning various Yang style forms ever since (1982-2004). As I moved from school to graduate school to my postdoctoral research position, I sought out teachers in order to continue to deepen my practice. Failing to find teachers, I have taught in order to maintain my practice.
Since coming to St. Olaf I have taught Tai Chi every year to interested students faculty and staff. Despite over 20 years of practice, I am still a beginner, and view the classroom not as a formal school but as a place to share and practice this craft with motivated partners. Several years back, we institutionalized our practice as a club, "The Center for Movement and Meditation". We gave it this rather broad name in hopes of fostering other forms of movement-based meditative practices such as Yoga, Qi Gong and Sufi dance (later down the road). Our practice is open to everyone, and is completely free of charge. We have not been able to arrange college P.E. credit except by special petition.
The practices we currently share are a Yang style competition short form (the one taught in China for the 1990 Asia Games, 10-12 weeks to learn), the Yang style long form (5-6 months) a Yang style Sword form (10-12 weeks) and a Yang style Staff form (10-12 weeks). Practice begins at the beginning of each semester and summer session. (It is impractical to join in mid-semester). Feel free to contact me.