Many good years

Today this trusty old blog becomes archive-only as it is time to wind it down. I will leave it online as it is a lovely record of much good T'ai Chi from 2006-2023, that's quite something! Thank you to everyone who has read or contributed to this blog over the years. The internet was such a different place then, how things have changed...

Links and info updated 02/11/2024.

In a bid to follow the Classics and simplify life, lessen entanglements and reduce stressors, I am pulling in some of my tendrils in the online world, to concentrate on the roots: real lived life. T'ai Chi informs every aspect of my life and continues to transform every aspect of it in sometimes obvious but more often subtle ways. I spend part of each week with my flatmate and oldest T'ai Chi buddy Duncan Price, which is a great joy. (He, along with David Hurn and Kevin Grey, were the first students of Mark I met on that blessed day I found the T'ai Chi Centre back in 2000. I walked into the garden at Art of Health and Yoga in Balham, London, and knew I had found 'home'. It is a delight to still be friends with these excellent people.) In the autumn I'll be studying some interesting Nei Gong with Duncan. I am also very happy to say he is now organising monthly push hands events in the South West and is teaching his classes in Bournemouth. 

I still study with Mark Raudva at the T'ai Chi Centre, whenever I can get to London or when he comes to visit in the south west. 

I continue to teach T'ai Chi, Chi Kung and Heartwork, privately at my home and also online, this can be found at greatrivertaichi.com. I have begun teaching Heartwork in the USA, details are at my Instagram along with free Chi Kung that I posted for people's wellbeing during lockdowns, all found here. I recently taught aspects of T'ai Chi and Chi Kung in new and diverse contexts, such as multi-disciplinary workshops, weeklong courses in Davon or with the Dark Mountain Collective. This is heartening and rewarding work. 

The Taoist Classics provide the greatest resource and I am rereading the Thomas Cleary editions for the umpteenth time. I hope to write a few long pieces about the links between Iain McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary and the states of being described in the Classics, over the winter at my Substack Uncivil Savant, where I write about Tao, the embodied life and art where Earth matters. During 2023, paid subscribers get access to monthly Chi Kung lessons and a meet up at the end of the year. Here's a link to the video of a conversation we had at Iain's home in January 2023. 

I now travel to teach art for a large part of the year, when I am not at home writing the follow up to my debut book Found and Ground. Writing and art have overtaken T'ai Chi as my main livelihood, which is wonderful and always interesting. All my art and teaching can be found at FoundandGround.com and at my Instagram. 

As I personally no longer teach T'ai Chi in Scotland or Sweden since Covid lockdowns and life changes brought that era suddenly to a close, it seems more appropriate for a locally-based newsletter or email round-robin to emerge than to continue this format.

In London I recommend Mark Raudva's classes and events which can be seen at www.thetaichicentre.co.uk. If he sets up a blog or similar, I will add the link here. He has an Instagram but currently does not use it much. 

In Gothenburg, Sweden you can study with Christina Fors. 

Kevin Devine's daytime classes continue in South London, he can be contacted at kevin [at] kevindevine [dot] co [dot] uk

In Aboyne, Aberdeenshire you can study with Anneke Stolte who can be contacted at annekestolte [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot uk

In Kintore, Aberdeenshire you can study with Scott Allan who can be contacted at activeresources [at] sky [dot] com

In Monymusk, Aberdeenshire you can study with Paolo Marioni who can be contacted at paolo [at] greatrivertaichi [dot] com

Kevin Grey provides superb TCM tui na, acupuncture and herbs at his practice in Tooting London. 

I will update this last placeholder post as and when any links or details change, as best I can. 

May I take this opportunity to thank every student who has studied with me, for however long, for their attention and energy. Thanks also to all those who have instructed for Great River T'ai Chi over the years and to those who now run their own classes or schools. May you have as a rewarding and heartening time as I have done. 

You can contact me via my website home page any time. 

Warmest good wishes to all who read this, yours, Caroline Ross.

Great River T'ai Chi School, founded 2002.

Picture, sunset from the end of my road, January 2023.

Autumn workshop with Mark

The Autumn workshop with Mark will run at Fetternear Hall 21st - 24th October. Paolo is finalising the schedule for 121s and group sessions, so if you want to book one of those then please let him know as soon as possible.

Painting Enso workshops, London

Some of last years attendees artwork © Adele Cloony

People in the South may be interested in the Enso painting workshops with Adele Cloony on 9th and 10th September. Click here for more details.

Summer workshop starts tomorrow!

From 2pm Leander Sea Scots Hall, same as the past 5 events. All welcome. 

I was hoping to be there tomorrow and Sunday, but tarin strikes means I won't get there until Sunday. I am looking forward to seeing all who come. 

be very interested with your heart

'Heart and Soul'

Memorial for Chris Laver

Mark and I attended the memorial for Chris yesterday in Totnes at his home where he'd lived with Nina, his widow. People spoke so movingly about him, his passion for life, including travel, steam trains, typefaces and T'ai Chi. We told people how much he meant to everyone in the schools and how much joy and warmth he brought to every class he came to. It was good to hear so many great stories about his life, from the 1980s squats of London to illegally driving steam trains in Krakow! He is greatly missed, but the impression he made on everyone he met is indelible. A small and beautiful wild meadow area of his garden was created in his memory, and we all planted wild flowers there. If you'd like Nina's address to send something, please feel free to get in touch by email.

Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern

Travel for Autumn workshop

For anyone planning ahead and intending travelling by train to the Autumn workshop which starts on October 21st, LNER tickets to Aberdeen are now on sale here

Summer workshop dates

The Sea Scouts have confirmed the hall hire for us so we are at our usual venue, Leander Sea Scouts, Kingston Upon Thames, UK. 22-28 July 2023. 2pm-9.30pm daily, with an hour's break for dinner around 6pm ish. 

Bring your own food, rather than big things to share, to make sure you've got something. But it's also fine to bring sharing cakes, snacks or whatever, and up to you whether you partake. Tea will be provided, as usual, and teas and milk are always welcome. Bring hand gel as there will be lots of partnerwork to make up for all the years without it!

As far as we know, camping at the venue is still fine. I will be camping there Saturday and possibly Sunday night.

Cost £50 per day, £25 per half day, (£30 per day, £15 per half day concessions)

Get in touch with Mark for more details or search this blog for 'Intensive' or 'summer workshop' as all the travel and venue details are still the same. 

Chris Laver

Dear friends, On Tuesday I heard from my friend Nina Cadzow that her husband, our dear T'ai Chi brother Chris Laver, died on Tuesday 11th April 2023 of pancreatic cancer. Chris was a wonderful man with such a great sense of humour. I first met him at Great River T'ai Chi classes The Round Chapel when he turned up to come and learn Sabre during my first year teaching there. He had previously studied with John Kells and other students of John. He became a stalwart of the class and was always to be found at Mark's workshops too. He loved weapons applications particularly, and a few years ago when passing through Totnes, where he had recently moved, we spent a happy afternoon doing sword form in his garden. It was then that I met Nina, his wife, who is an artist and pigment person and we became friends. Since 2018 I have stayed with them a few times, the last time in September 2022, when Chris seemed thin, but well, making great work in his printing press and design studio. Chris was a talented and experienced designer and artist with a love of old types and printing paraphernalia. I had been hoping to see him in June, and I will miss him very much, as I know many of you will, who have had the pleasure of spending hours pushing hands with him, for years. 

I am currently in the States and won't always have access to internet until after 23rd May, but I have passed Nina's address to Mark, if you wish to send notes of condolence. 

 

Goofing around in Totnes, March 2018, and a bit of actual push hands

When I get back to a place with wifi next week, I will find a few more pictures to share with you all.

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.

No Tooting class on Tuesday 7th March

Mark is teaching in Scotland this week.

Class resumes on 14th March.

Beginners are welcome to join 7-8.15pm. 

New beginners Taichi in SW17

New beginners are welcome to join our long term Tuesday evening group held in the main hall at Holy Trinity Church Hall, 7-8.15pm. The class costs £15, come along at 7pm, just wear loose comfortable clothes and soft shoes or trainers. You can experience for yourself the mind and body health benefits of this practice. No need to call in advance, just turn up any Tuesday in February 2023.

Just One Thing

This episode of Just One Thing with Michael Mosley has a good summary of the health benefits of T'ai Chi.

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. 

Aberdeenshire Spring Workshop

The dates of the Aberdeenshire Spring Workshop with Mark have now been confirmed.

Due to unavailability of the hall on the Monday and Tuesday, it will be a slightly different arrangement from last October, starting on the Friday afternoon rather than the usual Saturday.

Friday 3rd March to Sunday 5th March 2pm - 9.30pm(ish) 3-day workshop at Fetternear Hall 

Monday 6th to Wednesday 8th 1 to 1 lessons

Thursday 9th 2pm - 9.30pm at Monymusk Hall. An afternoon of weapons, followed by a leftside class after the food break.

Please contact Paolo if you'd like to book a 1 to 1 with Mark, or are interested in attending the workshops.

Warmest greetings to all Past Great River students, wherever you may be.

It's almost 10pm and I have just spent 3 hours going back over almost 18 years of this blog, saving some photos, writing, quotes and links that I have been meaning to gather together for quite some while. I was not expecting to be so moved by seeing all our faces getting younger by the minute, as I scrolled back to when I started this blog in 2005, three years after I officially started teaching T'ai Chi.

If you are reading this, and know me from classes, whether very well, or just for a brief time, then I send you my warmest good wishes and hope that this finds you well and well-loved. How incredible it has been to immerse myself in memories of the wider T'ai Chi family by looking through this blog in its entirety for the every first time. There was the news that I was inviting my teacher to come and teach my students at Drumblair Lodge, Aberdeenshire, in the Winter of 2005-6. Wonderful to know that many of you still practise and teach what you have been learning all these years. This makes me so happy.

I recently heard back from Megan, who used to study with Mark a decade ago, and who remembered me as 'always being there'. Indeed! It was good to be able to share lots of what is in the school's Dropbox, so that she can practice at home, now she is far away. Every year someone drops in at Mark's who used to study with John Kells, as happened last week. Mark told me how relieved and at home the student felt being in his class. 

There are so many people I miss, some moved away, some left, some passed on. Everybody left an impression. Some of my old students now study with Mark or Kevin, others elsewhere, others no longer practise. For those that do, I hope that T'ai Chi brings you a still point in your lives. Since the pandemic stopped me teaching in person in March 2020, I have only taught online, and currently I do not teach at all. After 20 years, it was a good time to take a break. Now, nature, writing, teaching craft and making art take up much of my time, but Central Earth is still fundamental. I am waiting for a dear relative to have a place I can stay in London in the near future, and then I will be able to come and study with Mark at Tuesday and Wednesday classes sometimes, with a quiet, safe place to stay, (which is essential for me, since last year's uprooting events). I plan to be at the November workshop if I can find someone who can put me up. 

I had forgotten how much we had all shared here on this blog, news, poems, classes, photos, comings and goings, births and deaths. I intend to leave this blog here, as long as Google leaves Blogger here for free, I guess. If you'd like to be in touch, my email address hasn't ever changed, so you can find me if you want to. In the meantime I can feel it will soon be time to wend my way back to T'ai Chi classes, though probably not teaching in person. I am going to help Mark record an online course, and see how that goes. I may also do a short one for all the chi kung I teach, as it has been so helpful to my friends with long Covid, which was a bit if good news recently. 

I have spent at least 20 years in rooms with people, wonderful people, whether for T'ai Chi, art, or before that, a decade of music indoors in studios. It feels like a combination of time outdoors, family time, and private time is still what calls me at the moment, for a bit longer. So if I don't see you in person very soon, but you are one of the excellent people I have had the pleasure of just seeing scrolling back through this blog, then may I wish you a very fruitful autumn and peaceful winter. Warmest greetings to you from stormy Bournemouth, 

Caro. 

The drawing board this week, putting the final 

touches to my natural paints book which will 

come out next June with Search Press.

Early Winter Taichi gathering with Mark at Twickenham

 All students are welcome to join Mark at the regular Twickenham venue from 26-18th November, 2022. Cost is £50 per day, sessions run from 2-9pm with an hour's break for food. Get in touch with Mark if you have any questions. 

If anyone in South London knows they are going to all three days and could put me up for the period of the workshop, please do get in touch, I would be very grateful (and happy to pay!) Caro.

 New indoor T'ai Chi Class in Aboyne

After having enjoyed outdoor T'ai Chi on the Green in Aboyne over the Summer and in to Autumn it's time to go inside. 

Starting Tuesday 18 October the class will be in the Aboyne-Dinnet Church Hall from 9.30 to 10.30am.

Looking forward to seeing you.