At the end of last month, our tai chi group participated in the annual Great
Lakes Taiji Performance Festival in Dearborn. This festival, hosted by the
Great Lakes Taiji Association, attracted both the tai chi enthusiast and tai
chi curious. Groups from both Michigan and Canada performed in death-defying
slowness. But the festival wasn’t just about
the hand form. There were also swords, sabers, and fans. Last year, our group
performed saber, so this year, we went with the sword. We also performed the
Yang style 49 competition form.
Many of us had not practiced the 49 form for quite some
time. (For my husband and me, it had been about four years.) And some people
didn’t know the 49 form at all. But we managed to get a couple rehearsals in
before the day of the performance. I practiced the form for a couple weeks on
my own, hoping to have it memorized well enough not to embarrass my teacher.
Other people had other concerns – some were doing their tai chi ranking test
the following day, and they were just trying not to mix up the sequence of the
49 form with the 103 form, the latter of which they would have to demonstrate
for the test. And still others were hoping not to wobble or fall on some of the
kicks and turns that had to be executed on one foot.
As for the sword, we had been practicing the form on a
weekly basis for I think most of this year, but some of us were still concerned
about wobbling and falling. And of course, there was the added pressure of making sure the
sword tassle didn’t wrap hopelessly around our wrists as we jabbed, chopped, and
sliced away.
On performance day, no, we weren’t perfect – there was a little
wobbling and a few missteps and whatnot. We did our best to be synchronized in our movements as a group. Overall, I think we did well. No one fell, and
we were all relieved about that!
Here's our 49 form performance:
And here's our sword performance:
Click here to see how the other groups performed. It was great to play tai chi with everyone!