The Dragon's Head Blog

There were 120 participants who spent the last weekend in May, 2017 attending a central region program at the International Centre near Orangeville, Ontario. Program leaders John Balinski and Jim Gazzard emphasized the importance of learning by watching so that we can disengage our “thinking” mind and access our “feeling” mind. Although the weekend started […]

Denver, Colorado hosted just under 100 participants for the June 10-11 international workshop with Tony Kwong. We started with an invigorating session of tor-yus and then another one of dan-yus. Next,Tony led us through the first 17 moves of the set. Later, he surprised us by asking the group “what move in the set do […]

How many times have we heard elbows down? How many times have we heard push up or hands first? Not enough we hope, as there is always more. There is a profoundness in the simplicity of instruction that can help connect the dots of what we have been working on during a period of time. […]

                      The International Center Florida hosted the a sword program lead by Dr. Karen Laughlin, over the Memorial Day holiday. Over 82 participants joined in the fun. For many, this was their first workshop. First-time participants reflect:   I took sword just to have fun. […]

Breakfast was early this last day of the workshop so that we had lots of time to practice.  We consolidated everything we had learned the first four days. And to top it all off we ended with two sets that felt completely different than the first sets we did this workshop. We all went home […]

Today we heard several stories. One of the members has radiation pain from the shoulder to the arm. She told us that she went to the doctor the day before this workshop. He advised her to double her morphine dose. Instead she decided to register for the five-day workshop. With a big smile on her […]

  There are 90 participants from 12 countries who have come to Helmond to practise Taoist Tai Chi® arts and to do other activities together, like weeding, dishwashing and chopping vegetables. This feels like coming home. Meeting old and new tai chi family members also contributes to this feeling. On the first sunny and warm […]

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) branch of the Taoist Tai Chi Society of Australia had good reason to smile on Saturday 29th April when 82 members from Canberra, Perth, Sydney and Adelaide joined together to celebrate ACT’s 25th anniversary at a national workshop.  A high tea, delightfully prepared by local members with an abundance of treats […]

Eighty-three participants from Windsor, Sarnia and the midwest USA gathered at the Windsor branch for a national program led by Tony Kwong May 6 & 7, 2017.  Participant’s from 14 to 80 years of age, improved their understanding of Taoist Tai Chi® arts by working together on the foundations and the first 17 movements of […]

“Keep it simple”, says Frazer Smith as he leads 31 participants at the May Health Recovery program at the International Centre in Orangeville.  “Up, up, …” go the participants as the instructor guides us through the first few moves of the set. And slowly, gently, softly day one ends with a shifting to balance.   […]

Fully 76 participants gathered at the Horseshoe Centre in St. Catharines for a Central Region program on Saturday, May 6, 2017.  All branches in the Horseshoe area were represented and visitors from Stratford, Toronto, Buffalo, and Syracuse were welcomed. Chris Lewis, our instructor for the day, observed that our first tai chi set was disconnected […]

The Vancouver branch hosted a national program and a “To Your Health” banquet over the weekend of April 29 & 30, 2017. We were honoured to have Marsha Eberhardt, President of Fung Loy Kok Taoist Tai Chi® share her knowledge and experience with 160 attendees from the Pacific, Western and Central Regions, as well as […]

There were 45 happy people who met in Frankfurt the first weekend in May for an international program led by Carmen Capilla. We worked a lot on donyus and toryus with a special focus:  changing our understanding of the moves and watching that change of the mind then transform the physical move. Dropping instead of […]

The Portland Branch was thrilled and deeply grateful to have Marsha Eberhardt stop over in Portland to conduct an intensive following her weekend workshop in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Even though the intensive took place on a Monday evening and a Tuesday morning, there was a very high turnout with many rearranging their work and family schedules […]

There were 82 participants from around Australia who gathered in Adelaide the first weekend in May for a national instructors’ workshop to explore substance and sensitivity.  Some participants had only begun practising Taoist Tai Chi® arts a short six weeks earlier.  Here are comments from only the first day of the event: Supportive and friendly, […]

The regional centre, in Longueuil, Quebec, was already a hive of activity when Chris Lewis, the leader of the national program, shared with us that “organizing a workshop was the workshop”. Organizing a program would give us the opportunity to learn “who are we and how we do things”. Chris suggested change as the theme […]

In a cold Copenhagen 77 members from 11 countries (Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, USA, Canada and Denmark) came together to practice Taoist Tai Chi® arts at an international workshop. And very soon the workshop leader, Carmen Capilla from Spain, made everybody forget the cold when she inspired us to explore, […]

On April 8 and 9 Winnipeg was thrilled to host a national program. The practice hall was full of positive people and positive energy. Old friendships were cemented and new ones were created as we learned together, dined together and shared our homes as billetees and billeters. There were people who travelled from Saskatchewan, Ontario […]

On the weekend of April 15th and16 the Portland branch had the privilege to host a national workshop led by Karen Laughlin.  There were 106 participants including travelers from Canada, New York, Texas, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Alaska, Arizona and California.  Smiling participants listened intently as we were guided through the foundation exercises emphasizing turning, stretching, […]

It has been a real privilege to attend the tai chi sword workshop here at the International Centre near Orangeville, Canada. Our instructor (and chef!) Blaise Baillargeon led us through the sword set, teaching each move with very calm and clear instruction. The workshop began with none other than the humble danyu! Blaise was demonstrating […]