London Classes over Christmas holidays

Amnesty International Classes finish on 11th December and resume on 15th January. Hackney round Chapel classes finish on 17th December and resume on 7th January. Central School of Speech and Drama classes begin on 22nd January.

I do not plan to go away over the New Year so during the break from regular classes I will be teaching at my home except on 25th, 26th, 31st December and 1st January. All other days are available for 121 or small group sessions. Do get in touch if you'd like to book a session.

London Classes this week

Hackney Round Chapel and Amnesty classes will take place this week as I am mainly on the mend from this horrendous cold / flu. As some of you had been asking, all Mark's students are very welcome to drop in to the Hackney class any time.

Aberdeenshire November Workshops

This month's workshops in Aberdeenshire with Master Mark Raudva are as follows.

Friday November 28th 7-10pm Ta Lu

Saturday November 29th 2-5pm Short Form
Saturday November 29th 7-10pm T'ai Chi Weapons
First half sabre revision and new postures for those who started this year, followed by staff and sword introductions for the senior students.

Sunday November 30th 2-5pm Partnerwork
Sunday November 30th 7-10pm Long Form

All will be held in the Friendship Room at the rear of Kemnay Village Hall, except for the Weapons workshop which will be in Monymusk Hall. Price is £15 (concessions available).

All students are welcome at Paolo and Davina's for a bite to eat between the sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

Brrrrr......

Who's for outdoor T'ai Chi?

Aberdeenshire celebration - 11th December

As we can't get a hall for our Thursday night class on 11th December, we've decided to turn a negative into a positive and go out for a meal together to celebrate the festive season. There aren't any restaurants specialising in cake, so a table is booked for 6pm at Sam's Chinese Cuisine, 13-19 King St, Aberdeen.

We'll eat early to allow folk plenty time to get trains, buses, or drive home now that winter is well and truly here. The last train to Huntly is 21:55, and to Inverurie is 22:50.

All are welcome, so let me know if you'd like to come so I can finalise numbers with the restaurant nearer the time. Also, let me know if you're willing to give lifts, or need a lift.

My student Seb gave me this picture of the park where he does Bagua at the weekends. Someone had made huge interlocking spirals using the pine needles.

Tonight's Hackney Class

Huge thanks go to Rob for agreeing to lock up and help run tonight's class a a practice session after I was called away. I am sure all will be back to normal next week. Tonight's session will cost half what students normally pay, just to cover the hall. I will sort all this when we we do the register next week. Thanks for your understanding.

Hackney Round Chapel

My Teacher Mark Raudva will be taking the whole of the class on Wednesday January 14th 2009. Special attention will be given to the Sabre Form after the tea break. Once or twice a year I like to make sure all my students in London get to work with Mark, as not all are able to make it to his weekend or Scottish workshops.

Great River Calendar 2009

Yet another night at home with this blasted cough, despite the fact that I am not run-down, I have been eating well, taking all manner of vitamins, resting, etc, etc. Anyway, I have managed to upload some pictures from the last 4 years of our school and made a little desk diary with Vistaprint. It's not too big, so it will sit out of the way on a shelf, but it does feature all the dates for Aberdeenshire and London workshops with myself and Mark for the whole of 2009! If you'd like one, let me know asap as with Vistaprint 'fast postage' is how they make their money. Anyway, costs should be around £5, including postage.

Oldmeldrum Class - 17th November

Just a reminder that Davina - a fellow Great River T'ai Chi instructor - will be taking this Monday's class 12:30 - 2pm at Oldmeldrum Town Hall as I'm away for that day. Normal service will resume the following Monday - the 25th of November 08!

Hand outs will be available this Monday for the warm up set and the short form. Downloads of these are also available on the resources page of the site : http://www.greatrivertaichi.co.uk/resources.html

All students (including new) are most welcome anytime. Just turn up on the day or email me for further details scott [at] greatrivertaichi [dot] co [dot] uk

Website / Blog

I have spent the last 7 hours rewriting my website content, a job which was well overdue. I much prefer the 3D world to the online one (an old-fashioned view, I know) but as I have been indoors recovering, it seemed right to get it all done. The new stuff won't be online for a couple of days, but I will post news here when it is. I managed to get the few dead links fixed, including the one to Steven's site, apologies for the delay. I also want to thank Mark for allowing me to use some of his wonderfully clear and concise writing on T'ai Chi on my website over the years. Tomorrow I will tackle all the images and photos as well as proof read things again.

This blog is obviously much more informal and gets updated most days. For me the website is more of a window onto the school and our approach, as well as a resource for the students. I only update it termly. There's a much less personal tone there, which is how I want it. So much great stuff is aired at class, and we investigate such a vast range of things in our studies with my teacher, that sometimes I wish I could write more of it down here. However, this would pull me into interpretation when I would rather stay immersed in the doing and being.

South London T'ai Chi

My dear class-mate and T'ai Chi brother Hamid Momtahan has been teaching T'ai Chi since his retirement earlier this year, specialising in work place and over 50's classes. Inspiring and generous with his energy and insight, he also assists regularly at Mark's classes too. David has just finished building his website so go to www.southlondontaichi.co.uk to have a look. Good luck Hamid!

An - 'Push'

Today I had an hour to scan the drawings of Sam Masich teaching at this year's Taichi Caledonia. The lines are incredibly pale as I only carried a propelling H pencil, but a bit of Photoshop has helped make them more visible. I hadn't drawn much at all since starting my MA in Fine Art at Chelsea 14 years ago, apart from the session at Mark's T'ai Chi Centre the week I left London 7 years ago, (those drawings are on my main website). I think I have now almost fully recovered from my art 'education' and can begin to respond naturally to the world around me via visual arts again. It still doesn't feel quite as natural as singing / writing music, or as T'ai Chi, but it's on the way. I'll post a few more pictures soon. Sam and Julia have just left to go to Brighton for his weekend workshop. I may not be able to go, as this cold is still hanging around, so we'll see.

London Classes

I was not able to teach at Hackney tonight due to this nasty cold making its way down onto my chest. Thankyou to David who covered my class at short notice for me. I hope not to miss any more teaching or studying from tomorrow morning.

From the New Year I will be teaching T'ai Chi regularly at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, initially for a term, with the students of physical theatre. It should be a very interesting term, I'm looking forward to it greatly.

Today Canadian T'ai Chi Master Sam Masich and his partner Julia arrived to stay, before his workshop this weekend in Brighton. Tomorrow I will scan the pictures I drew of him teaching in Scotland, and will get them posted here soon.

Long Form class 13th November

Our regular venue, the Masonic Hall, isn't available this week. Thursday class on the 13th November will be at Monymusk Hall 7:30-9:30pm. We're back at the Masonic Hall from the 20th.

We still need a venue for the 11th of December, as all our usual haunts are busy due to Xmas events. If anyone can suggest an alternate venue for us that would be great. It would be helpful to get an idea of numbers for that week so we know if we can squeeze into somewhere smaller if necessary.

11am 11th November 2009

I'm doing something that I have never done before; listening to the remembrance service from the Cenotaph in London, on Radio 4. I feel such a debt of gratitude to those who sacrificed so much so that I can live this life I freely choose.

Friends, and relations who died in the last few years are also coming to mind, some remarkable people who devoted their energy to their art, writing, T'ai Chi or their families. Today seems a good day to remember and feel grateful for those now gone and those still present in my life who have inspired and taught me so much.

London Weapons Days

Yesterday Mark confirmed the dates for the 2009 Weapons Days. Sundays were the popular choice as parking in Wandsworth is free and more people were able to keep the dates free. Here are the dates, leading us up to the Summer break. We could not get the Hall in December 2008 or January 2009 due to the annual pantomime being in rehearsals all weekend every week...
Febbruary 15th
March 15th
April 26th
May 10th
June 14th
July 12th
The days will all be held at St Mary Magdalene Church Hall, Trinity Road, next to Wandsworth Common, 10 mins walk from Tooting Bec Tube or Wandsworth Common BR. Several buses also stop outside the venue. Fees will be £25, concessions are available. Jasmine tea is provided, bring a snack. The classes will run from 1-7pm and will include Sabre form tuition for all new to weapons, Sword for those who have finished Sabre, and Staff for all who are interested. Please bring your own equipment, as there are limited spares. I am happy to order things at a discount for all students. To comply with the law, cover all weapons, wooden or otherwise, when on the street. There is no need to book in advance. All those with 2 months experience of regular T'ai Chi classes are welcome.

Current weapons prices

I have ordered the staffs, bokkens and wooden swords, which arrived in London and Scotland today. I hope that by tomorrow Ev's sword and Richard's sabre will be on their way. For reference, current prices of all items are below, they include the small share per item of the total postage costs. These are the amounts to pay me or Davina.
Bokken (ash) £6
Small bokken (oak) £7
Wooden sword (ash or oak) £8.50
Rattan Bo Staff (tiger burn pattern was only one available) £14.50
Straight sword £50-53 plus postage TBC
Sabre £65 plus postage TBC
Cloth carry bags £4-6

Earlier this week I taught T'ai Chi to the first year puppetry students at Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD). I am increasingly being asked to give introductory workshops for specific groups, such as school children, the puppeteers, Amnesty International employees, or today, for yoga teacher trainees, and I find it really rewarding. At CSSD the group were all about 20 years of age or younger, apart from the movement tutor who had also joined us for the 2 hour session. The head of department had previously studied T'ai Chi with Angus Clarke in 1980s, and asked me to introduce her students to rooting, flow and fluidity in movement and listening and sticking with a partner. We aim to make this a regular weekely or fortnightly session next year, and hopefully also for the movement students of the tutor who was present.

Today I went over to teach Jonathan Monks' yoga students in North East London (see Yogamonks in links). We concentrated on sticking, listening and getting into the ground. Several folks had other T'ai Chi, martial arts or bodywork experience, as well as their yoga practice, which made for a good session, lots of hands-on work, and a great deal of softening and joining.

Thanks to all participants for their good work and humour.