Workshop dates with Mark 2023

Twickenham Spring Intensive 29, 30th April and 1st May, 2-9pm daily, usual venue. Contact Mark for details. 

Summer weeklong workshop dates are just being checked by the Leander Sea Scouts but it is most likely to be Saturday 22nd - Friday 28th July. We should know by Easter and I will post it here as soon as I know.

Autumn Workshop in October will be at Fetternear Hall, Aberdeenshire, as usual, see previous post for details. Contact Paolo to book. 

All workshops cost £50 per day, concessions are available. 

Aberdeenshire Autumn Workshop

The Aberdeenshire Autumn workshop with Mark will be at Fetternear Hall 21st - 24th October, followed by 121s with Mark.  There will be more details nearer the time: please let Paolo know if you want to book a 121.

Dates for the summer workshop in London are expected to be confirmed soon.

Mark's classes resume 1 week late this January

Mark needs to attend to family matters in the North of England so classes will resume both in person and online classes one whole week late. Teaching begins 16th January. Thanks for your understanding. 

one week to the workshop

The Autumn workshop with Mark will start next week, Saturday 16th October at Fetternear Hall. The details are in this post.  If you booked a 121 with Mark, but didn't get my email earlier this week with the schedule, please get in touch and I'll confirm the date/time you are booked in for.

Once I've been to the hall early next week, I'll let everyone know the practical arrangements re food etc by email and put an update on here by Wednesday. If you need any other information, please let me know and I'll do what I can to help.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoying our first workshop together for two years.

Aberdeenshire Autumn Intensive

 I’m pleased to confirm the schedule for the Aberdeenshire Autumn Intensive with Mark.

The workshop will be at Fetternear Hall from Saturday 16th to Wednesday 20th October, sessions are 2-5pm and 6:30-9:30pm each day. The price is £22 per session, £12 concession. As usual, come along from the first session and then stay for as many as you like. There may be some limits on numbers of people in the kitchen etc, but I’ll advise everyone of any relevant Covid related requirements nearer the time.

There will also be a Left Side class with Mark on the evening of Thursday 21st October at Monymusk Hall. Time and price to be confirmed.

121s will be scheduled for Friday 22nd through to Sunday 24th October, and will be held at my house. Times are usually 2-4pm, 5-7pm, 8-10pm. If you’ve requested a 121, please let me know when you are/are not available and I’ll put together a timetable to suit.

If anyone needs advice or assistance with travel or accommodation, please get in touch and I'll do what I can to help.  It may be possible to stay with local students, and I also have information on local holiday accommodation.

Summer workshop begins this weekend

Dear friends, for those of you coming to the summer workshop, see you in Twickenham on Saturday at 2pm. If for any reason you don't have the address yet, drop me a text or email. I will post pictures as we go.

In other news, who knows how Covid will effect the plans for the Scottish autumn workshop? We won't know more for a while.

Short Form online classes with me resume 1st week September. 

Trinity Church Hall classes and Weds group classes with Mark resume early September. His Zoom classes will run during the summer, dates announced at each session, by arrangement. I will send out the invites as usual until Mark can take that over.

I am attempting to be on sabbatical, but you can email if you need to get in touch.

Love to you, if you are reading this. Have a good summer.

Caro.

Term dates and summer workshop latest

NEWS: Easter holiday. There will be no break in online classes with Mark during the Easter period, as he is not able to go away due to lockdown restrictions - and he lives only 60 metres from the studio! He understands that you might not be able to make it to class over this period, or may want a break, and will make sure no one gets left behind on anything that gets covered. However, as many folks may also be stuck at home, he thought you might like to join him for T'ai Chi anyway.

Summer workshop: I will be meeting the Sea Scouts at Petersham soon to arrange returning to that wonderful riverside venue this summer for the 15th Annual Intensive. Of course we cannot know what, if any, restrictions will be in place at that time, how long the workshop will be, if not the usual full week, and many other things. I went to see the new building yesterday from the outside, it is mostly completed and looks fantastic, airy and big, perfect for rainy days. The outdoor space is still great, big enough for classes and camping even though there is now a cool bushcraft area. The fire site is still there with plenty of wood for bonfires. 

We will provide hand gel and the new venue toilets are going to be clean and accessible, so hygiene will not be a problem. It is likely we would all bring our own packed meals this year and have a rota for serving teas, rather than a free-for-all in the kitchen. But this is all easily doable and so worthwhile. I will post more here when I know more. Last year I also bought a 4m square gazebo for when I moved boat. I will be ideal as a dry store for bags and shoes during the day so that we can stay outside for all but loo visits. Now we just all need our vaccines.

Thursday class with Mark starts at 7.30pm

 Reminder: tonight's class is at 7.30pm-9pm, as listed on the blog last week.

I can't join tonight as I have a meeting, but Mark will be there!

Shorter Thursday session at Monymusk

As the bowlers are in the main hall, the Thursday session this week at Monymusk will be in the small hall from 8-10pm.

Heartwork session this weekend at Hampton Court

1st March, 2-5pm, at the studio, all GR and TCC students welcome, usual price and arrangements.

Dates for 2020 at the T'ai Chi Centre - Easter hols added

Here's all the dates for this year's events. All the great River only dates with Caroline are on a separate post.  I have not been posting much here due to weight of work and having another delightful cold. I love not driving, but much time on public transport means if I've just missed one cold germ then another one will be along in 5 minutes...

The last Tuesday class of this term will be 24th March. Holiday dates for class break for Easter in London are 31st March, 7th and 14th April, when there will be no Tuesday classes. These weeks there will also be no Weds or Thurs classes with Mark. Classes resume 21st April.

The 15th Annual Summer Intensive runs from 25-31st July 2020, with optional partnerwork on evening of Friday 24th. Same venue, details and arrangements as last 3 years. Price tbc in coming days. All are welcome on the Saturday, even if you've only been studying a year or so. We hope to contact many old T'ai Chi friends and colleagues so that they can join us for a 15yr celebratory day of basic practice, with plenty of tea and cake too. If you have old T'ai Chi pals you haven't seen for a while, do let them know they'll be very welcome for some Short Form, sticking and more. Details soon. I organise the logistics for this course, so any questions feel free to get in touch.

October Workshop will be 4 day this year rather than 3, by popular request. 10-13th October 2020, with optional weapons session eve of Friday 9th. Mark will stay on to teach 3 days of 121s in Scotland for those who want them. Davina organises things for this course, so if you have any local questions get in touch with her. Also - huge thanks to Davina for over a decade of seamless Aberdeenshire admin for both Mark and myself.

There will be no London classes with Mark during these two workshop weeks, but Wednesday morning Tooting classes with Caroline will not be affected.

121 classes are available with Mark any time at his studio near Hampton Court.

Great River tutors in London and Aberdeenshire are available to give one-off T'ai Chi sessions for organisations, get in touch if you'd like to know more. We also run regular classes in Gothenburg, and run workshops in Sweden in March and November.

Tooting Wednesday morning classes, term dates

Tooting class, 9-10am each Wednesday continues until Easter break. There will be no class on 8th and 15th April. We return on 22nd April and continue until the end of July.
We will take the whole of the month of August off, with no classes. We return on 2nd September and continue through until the Christmas break.

sticking

Repost - Confirmed dates for Aberdeenshire study 2020 plus Mark's workshops

2020 - Fri-Sun as usual, Friday dates given below. Reposted.
Changes will post here if there are any.

An anonymous person made a comment on the workshops post below saying were there no Aberdeenshire workshops. I don't publish anonymous comments, and also all the Aberdeenshire news, posts and dates are always available, in chronological order, going back about a decade, by typing 'Aberdeenshire' into the search box.

Jan 17
Feb 21
Mar 20
no sessions April
May 8
June 26
July Summer workshop in Kingston 24-31
August off as usual
Sept 4
October 4 day Fetternear 4 day workshop with Mark 9-13th / 14th, then 121s
Nov 6
Dec 11

Shorter Monymusk session this week

As the bowlers are in the main hall, the Thursday session this week at Monymusk will be in the small hall from 8-10pm.

Turriff class term dates

The new term at Turriff starts next Monday, 13th January at the Baden Powell Community Hall.

The Short Form class is 6:45-8:15pm and the standard price is £50 for 6 weeks. Concession or weekly prices are available on request. The Long Form class continues until 8:45pm for a small additional cost.

The class is not currently open to beginners. If you have previous T'ai Chi experience and would like to join or re-join the class to study Short Form or Long Form, please get in touch with me to discuss suitability. email davina [at] greatrivertaichi [dot] co [dot] uk

The term will run until 29th June with a break on 6th & 13th April for the Easter holidays. There will also be no class on 4th May.

News

Mark's last classes of term:
Tuesday 17th December, returning 14th January
Wednesday 18th December, return TBC
Thursday 12th December, returning 16th January

Heartwork session 2-5pm this Sunday 8th at Hampton Court.

Caro's workshops all weekend in Aberdeenshire, sessions as usual format. Revised sessions from January, we'll discuss this over the weekend. Looking forward to seeing you all.

Tooting classes with Caro: last class of term Wednesday 18th, returning 8th January.

Beginners class with Mark in Tooting is planned for February, as well as a Sabre class for new weapons students, more details in the New Year.

A cheery wave

I have been posting here very little the last two months as family and work commitments have been intense. Today while I work I am listening to a BBC Radio 3 program recommended to me recently that T'ai Chi colleagues may find interesting, in a thread that you might like to explore, (I know some of you do already).
The Three Second Rule

A good program, yet still dispiriting how much people refer to themselves as machines, with programming, wiring, and so on. A hall of mirrors... with ego at the centre... but worth knowing about, so that we can offer and inhabit a creature-like resistance, an embodied response, a connected way in the world.

The common frequency of waves on the shore, 0.3hz, the same rate as the electrical activity of the relaxed brain. The pulse of the Short Form, when it feels just right?

Superb quote near the end of the piece, from the artist who made the program, Susan Aldworth: 'That idea of Descartes that the body and the soul were two separate things - I think he was profoundly wrong.'

Yes! So do I... So does Iain McGilchrist, so do most indigenous and traditional peoples... Yet the dichotomous view of 'haunted meat' (a great Charlie Brooker quote) is what is trashing the world today. How would we live if we knew that our embodied animal selves were not our 'inadequate vehicle' but instead our true means to great connection? The laying waste of the planet is the result of the hubris of joy-denying, left-hemisphere dominant people, forming a way of life that separates body and brain, people from other people, creatures and life-forms from each other, and puts the needs of the worst part of humans at the centre of the story.

What would it be to sit on the shore of our own lives, inner and outer, to watch the waves of our thoughts, feelings and desires come and go. To notice their rate, their quality. their roughness or timbre? The colour of the foam, the texture of the shingle. Sometimes there will be sharks, at other times turtles. Maybe it is full of waving fronds of kelp, or tickle by cormorant wings. I am not fighting the natural rate of my life-waves any more, or indeed its tides. Perhaps I would like the storms not to return, but that's just a preference, not a demand. And look, there're shells...

********

I am working on softness, left side form, some weapons ideas.
Greetings from the river.

Classes in London with both myself and Mark continue until 18th December.
Aberdeenshire workshop will continue as planned, more info next week.

New beginners session in London

Mark will be starting off a new beginners group in Tooting from 1st week February 2020. It will start at 6,30pm prompt and last 1 1/4 hrs. Please call me on 07732 659104 to register your interest, or email caroline at greatrivertaichi dot co dot uk , as I will be arranging the dates and letting folks know.

Long Form and Dance study will not be affected, and will take place at their normal times. Weapons will continue, with space for people to begin sabre who have not yet done it, likewise with sword.

If you would like to join his class then get in touch with me, even if you have before, as for data protection law compliance reasons, we do not keep your details.

No Turriff class this week

Just a reminder there is no class at Turriff this week, 21st October. We'll restart the term on Monday 28th 6:45-8:15pm for Short Form students, continuing to 8:45pm for Long Form. Classes will run until 16th December.

Thursdays at Monymusk

Here's the revised rota for Thursday sessions until the end of the year. As usual we'll be in the Small Hall 6:30-8:45pm and Large Hall 8:45-9:30pm at Monymusk except where listed. The price is £30 for 10 weeks or £5/£3.50 per week.

17-Oct  Davina   main hall
24-Oct  Janet     main hall
31-Oct Sandy
07-Nov Paolo     8-10 only (small hall) 
14-Nov Marie
21-Nov Anneke
28-Nov Janet
05-Dec Davina
12-Dec Marie   8-10 only (small hall) - CANCELLED
19-Dec Paolo   6:30-9:30 (small hall)

If you can't make the session that you're due to lead then please contact someone on the list to arrange a swap.