Here in Rockville and Springdale we are blessed – we have Yoga ant Tai-Ji classes! It is hard for us to choose where to go or to find time for both. Ann Rutz teaches Anusara Yoga and David Rutz teaches Tai-ji. They are both wonderful teachers, what a family!
This time I will talk about Tai-ji which we usually have on David’s terrace, and that is how we usually see him :-):
And this is us, his most devoted students: Susan, Genevieve and Nida:
It all started several years ago – David got engaged in his Master’s Chungliang Al Huang classes in Oregon and even invited him to our canyon one of the beautiful autumns maybe a couple of years ago.
Here Chungliang is in the middle of the circle teaching us to relax in our movements, to dance in his class and through life.
He also showed us how graceful he is while doing Chinese calligraphy:
At the end of the classes as usual we were taking pictures with him:
But then he left and David decided to continue teaching us the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life. So we are enjoying every minute of it:
Especially when the weather is nice enough (which is almost always 🙂 we have it on the terrace with the magnificent views of Zion:
That is why when we come to class we at first all exclaim what a wonderful weather we have here, how beautiful the mountains look and how grateful we are for that:
Then we do the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life created or choreographed by Chungliang, trying to be as graceful as possible and also trying to feel the energy floating around and through us:
And at some point we always discuss things like whether there is a bad and good energy or just the energy we need and use and the energy we don’t utilize (Susan’s brilliant thought). We discuss Chinese symbols, some philosophy and then David tells us something in pure Chinese language, which to him sounds musical and to me – not so much :-). He is a very good student of everything Chinese! There are quite a few Chinese paintings in their house, so when the weather is not the best -we do Tai-Ji in the house and admire the art:
There is also another Buddha outside who watches us while we dance and gives us a hint to be as Present as possible:
We usually end the class with the healing movements of Spring Forest Chigong and then usually Ann, our Yoga teacher, comes back from walking their dog Lao-Tzu and we have a nice chat with her:
And then David sees us off, till next Saturday:
Thank you, David!