Tai Chi in Anchorage

Tai Chi in Anchorage

At Oriental Healing Arts, there are classes in several other forms of Tai Chi. There is Tai Chi 24, developed recently just to have something not so long. There is sword form. There are classes here for children. There are several Tai Chi 10 classes. I lead the one for designated for Seniors on Thursday mornings from 10:30 to 11:30. We do Qi Gong for most of the hour, and the form at the end. Tai chi 10 takes about 5 minutes to perform after you know the whole sequence of movements. Tai Chi 24 movement takes about 15 minutes. Long form which is 108 movements in three parts, takes about 25 minutes. Most long time practitioners use the long form. I have been trying to learn it for several months now.

There is a free class Saturday mornings at 8:30 which will change into free Tai Chi in the park in the summer. This year they will offer it in 6 or 7 city parks throughout Anchorage. There is also a free class I believe Sundays at the Museum. Check with Oriental Healing Arts for the schedules of the many classes offered and the prices.

Oriental Healing Arts also has a class from Shifu for people who want to teach Tai Chi. I took the class last summer and am assisting in the class this Spring taking place right now. You do not have to really want to teach it to benefit from this class. It teaches you the basic principles of alignment, breath, chi flow, basic important acupressure points, the principle of Sung (relaxes awareness), of push hands, Chan se Chung (movements based on Yin and Yang),the basic martial art roots found in the form, and the whole Tai Chi 10 form plus a special Qi Gong called energy sphere Qi Gong.

Each class taught at Oriental Healing Arts starts with a Qi Gong. There are many Qi Gongs used for many purposes. I do Smiling Heart and the Energy Sphere Qi Gong. I am learning Ba Duan Jin, Tai Chi warm up, and Medical Qi Gong. These are done standing in one spot and are considered energy work. Taoist Qi Gong emphasizes:

Complete relation of muscles, tendons and ligaments
Smooth even silent breathing (the breath is slow, even, fine, deep, and soft.)
Movements are soft, smooth, fluid, and circular with ease and comfort in mind
Total utilization of effort without creating internal strain
Physical stretches accomplished by release, relaxation, and letting go of tension in the nerves and mind.

Tai Chi and Qi Gong are similar and different and there is no simple way to differentiate the two.

Each Spring and Fall Oriental Healing Arts has a festival over a weekend where they introduce and demonstrate their classes and different forms taught, and usually bring special teachers in from Outside for seminars. The Oriental Healing Arts teaches classes in Massage Therapy, chair massage, acupressure, Medical Qi Gong, Tai massage, and many other classes. They have massage therapists at the Spenard Rd location and on Northern Lights at Massage Now where you can get a walk in massage and where some classes are held.

FYI: The reason Tai Chi is spelled Tai Chi, or Taiji, etc., and Qi Gong is spelled this way or Chi Gung, etc. is because of different translations from the Chinese by different transliteration systems. These are called Yale, pinyin, Wade-Giles, etc. They all try to translate the way the Chinese is pronounced