The Children of Tai Chi Farm

Written by Sifu CJ Rhoads

In the beginning was Tai Chi Farm.

Okay, it wasn’t really the beginning.  After all, Qigong and Tai Chi (i.e. Taiji, T’ai Chi Ch’uan, or Taijiquan) have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years, though not always called by those names.  Even here in the United States teachers from China and/or Taiwan have been around teaching the internal arts since the sixties and seventies. 

But for me, personally, in 1995 my Tai chi teacher brought me to the boonies of New York to join hundreds of other people at the Tai Chi Farm, hosted by Master Jou Tsung-Hwa, and it was an eye-opening experience. Master Jou was a Math Professor from Rutgers University who brought dozens of Tai Chi Masters from different styles and backgrounds together and provided, at a very low cost, a weekend of camping and workshops called the Zhang San Feng Festival after the mythical founder of Tai Chi.

It changed my life. 

My lineage at the time was very insular, and didn’t really associate with other schools and styles.  But at the Farm, not only were there other styles and lineages, they all seemed to get along!  There was very little “my style is better than your style” (although if there was, it wasn’t open and apparent as it would have gone against everything Master Jou Tsung-Hwa believed).  It was through Tai Chi Farm that I got connected to A Taste of China run by Pat Rice in Winchester Virginia, which then connected me to dozens (and over the years, hundreds) of other Tai Chi organizations and events.

Sadly, the original event is no more. After Master Jou Tsung-Hwa’s untimely death due to an automobile accident, the actual Farm in Warwick, New York, was sold. 

I provide this background as a foundation for three articles that I plan to write; this one, about Tai Chi Gala, the next one about Tai Chi Park, and the final one about Symposium for Integrative Health, Tai Chi and Qigong.  These three events are directly related to the Tai Chi Farm, children, as it were, of the parent event.  A triumvirate of multi-style Tai Chi Festivals on the East Coast. 

I just recently came from The Tai Chi Gala & Intuitive Arts Retreat which is lovingly run by one of Master Jou Tsung-Hwa’s top students, Loretta Wollering.  Loretta actually did most of the administrative back-end work running the Tai Chi Farm so she is masterful at creating a fabulous event with top-notch teachers and an incredible space.  (For years Loretta ran her event out of hotels and universities, and I have to say that the current space is far superior.  Being together in a smaller space surrounded by nature cannot be beat, and staying together in cabins is ever-so-much-more-community oriented than being in separate hotel rooms or spread out across campus.  And, of course, now that I don’t have to make a too-long trip all the way up to Albany New York, I can just come for a day or two if I need.)  The Poconos, where the location of Tai Chi Gala has been since two years ago, is just a few hours west of New York City, a few hours north of Philadelphia.  The facilities and staff are tremendous.  This year, the food was really good, and the staff was ultra-responsive to our needs. 

The worst or only problem we had (and it’s a great problem to have) was that so many people came we hadn’t really organized the parking properly initially.  That ended up with a lot of people being asked to move their cars so that others could get out.  But we worked it all out, getting everyone into spots that enabled everyone to get around – good naturedly, of course.  Next year they will probably put some kind of lines in the field to avoid the problem.

This year Loretta tried something new – having a workshop on Friday before the official “beginning” of the event at dinner.  I was honored to be able to teach that workshop, and there were so many people we had to move out of the space allotted and down into the large flat courtyards where there was plenty of room.  I will truthfully say I’ve never taught so many people at one time – somebody said they counted 80 people.  They were all wonderful participants, following along extremely well and showing a great deal of interest in the short form I was teaching.  I’m sure Loretta will do this again – perhaps even expand on it and have more than one workshop on Friday.

The rest of the workshop leaders were absolutely terrific – I didn’t go to a single workshop that I thought was uninspired or boring.  They were all unequivocally great.  Space does not allow me to review the individual workshops, but I can tell you all the great workshop leaders who shared their knowledge, talents, and skills with the attendees (in order of their appearance in the program):  Shifu FengXiao Lu, Shifu Harry Legg, Shifu David Ritchie, Sifu Ken Lo, Shigong RenGang Wang, Shifu William C. Phillips, Shifu Stephen Watson, Shigong Richard Clear, Shifu ZhongHua Lu, Shigong Dr. John Painter, Simo Angel Lo, Shifu Dr. Bob Bacher, Shifu Paul Ramos, Shifu Erik Oliva, Shifu Alan Marshall, Shifu Violet Li and, of course, Shifu Loretta Wollering.

The event was only marred by the fact that for the first two days, Loretta was ill from overwork to prepare for the Gala and unable to take up her normal duties, but it is a testimony to her organizational skills that no-one missed a beat; she had everything lined up so well, we carried on smoothly with everything. She was able to do the Sunday Sunrise workshop to everyone’s relief and delight.

(Edited by Sifus William Phillips & Violet Li. Note: The Editorial Board of www.VioletLiTaiChi.com is not responsible for the content of the article.)

About the Author: Dr. Christine “CJ” Rhoads has been studying Tai Chi for almost thirty years.  She is the managing director of HPL501c3 Institute, an umbrella organization with over 30 programs and partners devoted to helping develop Health, Prosperity, and Leadership for everyone, everywhere.  Many of those programs are in the Integrative Health world including Tai Chi.