Christmas holidays

Classes are officially over for 2017 and start again the week of Monday 8 January.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy qi-filled new year.

Christmas tree for URC Christmas Tree Festival

We had fun in class at the United Reformed Church St Helens today, getting ready for the Christmas Tree Festival. We did some tai chi and qigong too. Thank you to my lovely creative students who did a fantastic job on the tree.

Beijing 10 step form

For Kyle as promised, here is Master Faye Li Yip doing the Beijing 10 step form. It's a lovely little form if you don't have very much space to practise in.

Shoes for tai chi

This is for Chris who was asking about it. As you know, I prefer to do tai chi barefoot, but that's just me.

You can get special shoes for tai chi. It's worth checking out the Tai Chi Link website as they are having a clearance sale on shoes at the moment.

I also find the Vivobarefoot ones are good as they have flexible soles.

And there are always yoga socks if you want something with a bit of grip but not too much.

I hope this helps. Don't forget to keep voting for BHQA every day here.

Vote for BHQA

Please go to this link and vote for BHQA for our work on world health qigong day. We worked really hard to get demonstrations in across the country. You don't need to be a member, you need to vote for 3 organisations. Anyone can vote. You can vote daily from 1-15 November. 😁 😁 😁 😁http://ihqfo.shandongyuanhe.com

new class at Chapter One Tea Rooms

There are still places available in the new tai chi and qigong class starting at Chapter One Tea Rooms in Hindley this Wednesday 1 November at 2.30pm. Classes are at the reduced rate of £3.50/session and this first one is free for everyone. The nice people at Chapter One Tea Rooms have even offered to throw in a free pot of tea. Call or email to book your place.

Forever Friends performance

I'm back now after our debut performance on the London stage. It's been a lot of hard work with many challenges and difficulties along the way. In the end Faye Li Yip's vision won through them all as you can see in the video above. I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to take part in this.

Here are some pictures taken by Joanne's husband Julian.

Tonight's class

Don't forget that the time and room have changed for tonight's class. See you at 8.15pm in the Dance Studio!

Wednesday evening class time change

As I said in class yesterday, the Wednesday evening class is changing from next week. We will be moving to the dance studio at the other end of the school in M block. If you are going by car you can park outside near the all weather pitch.

This also means a change of time and we will be starting at 8.15pm. See you there!

More Autumn events

Not a local event, but worth a trip to London! To celebrate 45 years of diplomatic relations between China and the UK, the UK Chinese Art Centre is putting together this stunning show on Tuesday 24 October at the Hackney Empire. Joanne and I will be performing in the tai chi part of the show along with other members of the Deyin Taijiquan Institute from all over the UK. You can buy tickets here.

Almost as glamorous and much more local, I will be starting a new beginners' tai chi and qigong class at the Chapter One Tea Rooms in Hindley on Wednesday afternoons at 2.30pm from 1 November. It is a reduced price class at £3.50/session and the nice people at Chapter One Tea Rooms have even offered to throw in a free pot of tea for the first class. :) Space is limited so booking is essential.

Autumn tai chi events

There is lots of good stuff coming up for the Autumn.

On 26 August in Aigburth, Liverpool is part 3 of the taiji kungfu fan routine with Angela Howarth.

Master Tary Yip will be visiting Liverpool on Saturday 9 September to give a workshop on the Sun style 13 step form. Information on the event and how to book here.

And down in Telford on Saturday 30 September will be the next of the popular Deyin Taijiquan Institute bootcamps. These are free to Deyin members and only £15 to non-members. They can get filled up quickly so book soon to avoid disappointment.

This is followed on Sunday 1 October by xing yi quan and push hands with Master Tary Yip.

And on 28 October in Blundellsands, Liverpool is a morning workshop on applications and push hands with Angela Howarth.

Pictures from World Health Qigong Day

Apologies for the late post - just catching up with things. You can see lots more pictures from World Health Qigong Day in Liverpool on Angela's Flickr feed here.

World Health Qigong Day 2017

"Let me teach you health qigong" is the slogan of the first World Health Qigong Day. Starting at 10am local time all over the world in more than 40 countries and regions people will be practising health qigong. Come along and join us for this free event in the Festival Gardens in Liverpool where five British Health Qigong Association instructors will lead you through six health qigong sets.

The address is Festival Gardens Liverpool, Riverside Drive, L17 5BU. Meet up at 10am at the Chinese pagoda.

Inter-fest

It has been a fabulous four days at Inter-fest, training with some inspiring tai chi masters. I have taken a few pictures of the opening ceremony which I'm including here. If you are on Facebook there is some great video footage taken by the Deyin Taijiquan Institute, which I have shared.

Off to Interfest

I'm really looking forward to going away for four days for some tai chi, qigong and meditation to celebrate Professor Li's 80th birthday.

This does unfortunately mean that there will be no class at the Guild Hall Community Centre on Monday 17 July, but all the rest of my classes will go ahead as usual.

New class starting in St Helen's

Starting 4 July, there will be a tai chi/qigong class on Tuesday mornings at 10am at the Ormskirk Street United Reformed Church in St Helens. It is aimed at beginners but all levels are welcome.

Team photos from qigong course

I think our team had the most fun.