Guides to life

Expressing yourself in tai chi

It is quite unfortunate even our Tai Ji education teaches us to focus on the “correct” movements, and not to express ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I’m happy enough to be able to do the correct movements! To perform the choreography well, getting the steps right, the weights right, the joints relaxed etc. Then I was shown a form totally different from what I’ve seen before.

My current teacher told me that even in Tai Ji, you have to express yourself.

Expression is not restricted to drawing, writing, photography, ballet and all the other creative arts. Tai Chi, after all, is a martial art. So we have to be expressive even in Tai Ji.

And here comes the nail:

The Tai Chi form that we’ve been doing, is like plain water. It lacks intensity, it lacks the inner fire found in each of us.

Then he proceeded with a version of Lao Jia Yi Lu (老架一路）, a popular Chen style Tai Ji form for those unfamiliar with the term. I haven’t seen my teacher perform it this way before. It’s as though an animal was released. This beast showed great pride in the form, and yet managed the pride with a certain sense of joy and calmness.

It’s hard for me to describe in words what I saw, but the description is not important for the point I’m trying to make. Expressing yourself is a very important part of Tai Chi. It’s not enough to just learn the moves, we must also infuse our own pride, our own fire in it.

We tend to forget ourselves while going through the form, just like how we sometimes forget who we are while going through life. It’s not enough that we learn how to speak, how to count, how to read. We need to express these knowledge as our knowledge, not someone else’s knowledge. In short, we need to express ourselves, our true selves. I guess Tai Ji offers the rare opportunity to do so without the social pressures that some other arts might entail.

So, let loose, and enjoy the expression!

© 2008 shang lee . com.