World Arts East Red Hook, which opened last fall, celebrated the Lunar New Year on February 20 with a free community T’ai Chi class.
There were five participants. The focus was on creating more vitality as we move through the year of the ox. There was no experience necessary, everyone had their own mats and during the class everyone wore masks.
T’ai Chi is an internal Chinese martial art that is practiced for defense training, health benefits and mediation.
Erica Olivares Bowen, who is the owner of the studio, originally planned on having the class outside near Valentino Pier but the cold and snow on the ground led her to have the class in the new studio on King Street.
“It is always nice to do a class outside where you can feel the elements, feel the breath within you, feel the air and the wind around you,” Bowen said.
She intends on having an outdoor class in the future so the students can get the full experience.
Bowen first learned T’ai Chi at Emperor’s College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in California, where she did a master’s program.
“I was always really attracted to the Yuan style of martial arts but I had a really amazing professor who was teaching us T’ai Chi. He was a doctor of acupuncture who was originally from China,” she said.
“T’ai Chi helps with balance, not just mental balance but actual physical balance,” Bowen said. “A lot of times as we get older many times people have difficulty with balancing, standing one one leg. T’ai Chi can help with flexibility, mobility, range of movement, breathing and one’s mental focus.”
“T’ai Chi’s philosophy really focuses on yin and yang,” Bowen said. “If you have too much yin or something is too yang that is also off balance. We try to bring the individual and the body into balance.
Shaolin Kung Fu and Jiu Jitsu have their own forms and styles and T’ai Chi does as well. Some martial artists study/practice something like capoeira about three days a week and then might supplement that training with T’ai Chi.
Four of the five people in the workshop were completely new to T’ai Chi. One woman who attended said she had watched T’ai Chi in parks multiple times before but was never able to get the hang of it after being a little intimidated. She thought she was able to really learn the basics through practicing the sequences during the 45 minute class.
They did warm-up movements like circling feet in both directions, lifting each leg and then lunging, punching the space in front of them, circling arms in both directions, inhaling and exhaling and moving wrists in a circular motion.
After the long warm-up, they did the forms where they did full body movements and there was music the whole time.
Bowen has a few goals for participants when they take a class or workshop.
“What I want for someone is whatever it is that they came for, number one, that they receive that on some level,” Bowen said. “Going back to what we talked about the benefits of T’ai Chi are, for them to get some element of that, that is most important.”
She also wants to make sure that everyone remembers to focus on their breath since that is a basic element of T’ai Chi. She knows they will not be perfect after an initial class but she wants them to get some of the benefits.
World Arts East Red Hook is located at 127 King Street, second floor. (929) 295-0605
