The Connecticut River shimmers in the sun as I take my first tai chi class at Great River Park in East Hartford.
Tai chi is a slow-moving martial art famous for its ability to strengthen both mind and body. And it's unlike any workout class I’ve ever taken.
My instructor, Malee Khow, began the lesson on a recent weekend with daoyin — a series of exercises that are graceful and slow, but require control and balance.
She begins calling out movements. “Shun shun tui zhou,” or “push the boat downstream,” is demonstrated with the delicate grace of a flower in the wind.
There are other forms we go through as well: “peng niao zhan chi” also known as “a roc spreads its wings,” and “tui chuang wang yue,” translated as “push the window open to look at the moon.” There’s even an intriguingly-named movement called, “lao wen fu ran,” or “the god of longevity strokes his beard.”
The dance is deceptively simple at first, but it takes quite a bit of energy to control the slow flow of limbs and hold them in a pose. It’s unlike yoga and Pilates.
Khow focuses quite a bit on something called the dantien.
“Dantien is your body’s center, [it] has the energy, the chi,” she says.
I feel below my belly button — Khow says that’s where the dantien is — and I breathe in and out trying to “sense” my dantien, like she says. For now, I just feel my belly and send it some loving, non-judgmental thoughts.
“You can use [tai chi] for exercise, and also you can use the movement for self defense, and ... dancing — very beautiful,” Khow says.
It certainly is beautiful when Khow moves. Me? I feel somewhat klutzy, scrambling to glide from one movement into the next. Next to me, Dan Thompson of East Hartford is also trying out tai chi for the first time.
“She’s got like a dancer’s body,” Thompson, 70, says of Khow. “She knows what she’s doing. And decades of practice. This is something to strive for. When I’m 90, I’ll be doing perfect tai chi.”
Also here — Wendy Kwalwasser from Hartford.
“Today is my 75th birthday,” she shares.
She’s a regular at these classes organized by Riverfront Recapture.
“This setting is just exquisite by the river,” Kwalwasser says. “I try and come as often as I can.”
