Tai Chi Berkeley: Classes

Beginning Class: The first class in the twelve week session introduces Tai Chi and its various ideas and benefits. A five part warm-up set is taught in the first class. Students who continue in the course develop the initial warm-up set, then begin to learn 2-3 postures (form positions) each week. These postures are designed to create optimal external alignment to facilitate stability, strength, and flexibility by conscious organization of bones, joints, and muscles. Some internal Ideas and Principles are introduced.

Intermediate Class: This twelve-week course adds more advanced form postures to those learned in the beginning course. Continuing to work with the specifics of postural organization, the student learns increased awareness of internal alignment concepts, which begins to significantly affect internal organ health and development, and energy flow.

Advanced Class (Form): These ongoing classes significantly deepen the form work, increasing consciousness and refinement of the mind-body relationship. Also, the cultivation of form-flow (the form as a moving meditation) is emphasized. An advanced Tai Chi meditation is introduced, which does much to develop and refine the Chi (internal energy) and significantly strengthens internal organs.

Advanced Class (Push Hands): Push Hands is a fundamental tool used for martial art training in Tai Chi. It is practiced at various levels. Most people think of martial arts as fighting with an opponent. That, at some level, can represent part of the truth; another important part of the truth is that martial arts represent how you deal with things when they come at you, whether the thing coming at you is a person, Life, or yourself. Through the cooperative-competition of push-hands, we explore and work with issues such as reactive resistance, activity without aggression, receptivity without weakness, and how to neutralize and not be impacted or imbalanced by an incoming attacking force. After these skills are significantly developed the student can choose to learn push hands as a Tai Chi Chuan martial fighting skill, with application and more dynamic practice. As students learn martial skills, they are very much encouraged to learn Wu Te (martial virtue), how to treat the Art, the Teacher, classmates, others, and the self, with respect and value.

Class sessions are 12 weeks long, and are offered four times per year. Session dates can be found below.

New students are welcome at the first or second Beginning Form class of any session.

Visitors from schools that practice Professor Cheng Man Ch'ing's shortened Yang style Tai Chi may visit Beginning and Intermediate form classes, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Advanced Form and Push Hands classes are not open to visitors without permission of the instructor.

Recommended courses of study are described at the top of this page.

Class Schedule

Day	Time	Class
Monday	6:00 - 7:00 pm	Form (Advanced) & Meditation
	7:00 - 8:00 pm	Push Hands (all levels)
Tuesday	5:15 - 6:15 pm	Form (Intermediate)
	6:15 - 7:15 pm	Form (Beginning)
Wednesday	7:00 - 8:00 am	Form (Advanced) & Meditation
	8:00 - 9:00 am	Push Hands (all levels)
Saturday	8:00 - 9:00 am	Form (Advanced) & Meditation
	9:00 - 10:00 am	Push Hands (all levels)
Sunday	8:00 - 9:00 am	Form (Intermediate)
	9:00 - 10:00 am	Form (Beginning)

Classes are held in the Western Sky studio (Bay 1 Room 13A) at 2525 8th St. in Berkeley, between Dwight Way and Parker St.; click here for a map, courtesy of

.

The 8th Street address is a converted warehouse, with many individual studios. The entrance to Bay 1 is on 8th Street, closer to Dwight Way than to Parker. The studio is at the back of Bay 1, in the left (NE) corner.

On-street and city-lot parking is available. AC Transit bus 72 stops at Dwight Way and San Pablo, about 2-1/2 blocks from the studios. Buses 9 and 19 stop at Parker and 7th, about 1-1/2 blocks from the studios. More information about AC transit can be found here.

The Berkeley studio is located about 0.75 miles north of the Oakland and Emeryville borders, and about 1.5 miles from the UC Berkeley campus.

Group Classes

• $20 per hour (single class)
• $60 per month (1 class per week)
• $100 per month (2 classes per week)
• $130 per month (3 classes per week)
• $155 per month (4 or more classes per week)

A "month" for purposes of this fee schedule is four (4) weeks of Tai Chi classes. A "class" is one hour of group classes, per the weekly schedule above. Detailed fee policies are included on the printed schedule available at the studio.

Private Classes

One-on-one instruction may include form correction, push-hands, and/or advanced work. Private classes are available with Lenzie Williams for $125 per hour; or with one of the school's senior instructors for $75 per hour. Scheduling is by appointment (see Contact page).

The following are currently-scheduled session beginning and ending dates:

Session	First Class	Last Class
Spring '08	Mon Mar 31, 2008	Sun Jun 22, 2008
Summer '08	Mon Jul 7, 2008	Sun Sep 28, 2008
Fall '08	Mon Sep 29, 2008	Sun Dec 21, 2008