For now just Ken is teaching tai chi quan, but as we grow we look forward to connecting with other teachers and developing new teachers ourselves.
There is no official certification process in tai chi, though tai organizations are free of course to offer such. So how do we identify a teacher?
Tai chi quan is hundreds of years old, and for all that time the rule has been this: ask your teacher if you can teach.
Xiānshēng Ken Tilton
Ken first studied tai chi at the New York School of Tai Chi Chuan, a school founded by senior students of Professor Cheng Man-Ch’ing, student of Yang Cheng-fu. This was some time around 1990.
The New York school is where Ken was introduced to his school’s namesake, the “empty step”, which drew him deeply into tai chi. He spent hours mastering specifically the empty step in Ward Off Left, which he credits with making his form especially beneficial to strength and balance.
After a break, around 1992, Ken resumed his study under Great Grandmaster William CC Chen, who himself started learning and teaching tai chi under Professor Cheng at the age of eighteen in Taiwan. Ken’s search for a teacher ended with Master Chen. Over thirty years later, Ken continues to learn from GGM Chen.
The title “Xiānshēng” is the least pretentious of the titles Master Chen recommends. It translates literally to “first born”, and to me it just means I have been doing tai chi longer than my students. It does not imply even a student-teacher relationship; it is just a term of respect.
Ken’s Tai Chi
Below you will find links to two videos, one a rough introduction to tai chi, the other a recording of Ken doing William CC Chen’s “60 Movements” Yang-style tai chi chuan short form, a very close derivative of Professor Cheng’s “37 Postures”.
Introduction to Tai Chi Chuan
This video was knocked off in one take with no script, so pardon the mumbling pauses, but it seems quite comprehensive after the fact.
It touches on safety, finding a teacher, all the key principles of performing the form, and leads the viewer through several activities in which they can play with those principles. It ends with instruction on the namesake “empty step”.
Ken and William CC Chen’s “60 Movements”
Below is a video of me performing Great Grandmaster William CC Chen’s “60 Movements”, the form we learn and practice at Empty Step.