Our studio

Twin Cities T’ai Chi was founded in 1993 as a non-profit educational organization dedicated to teaching, preserving, and promoting Yang-style T’ai Chi, Qigong, meditation, and related internal arts.

Our studio occupies a beautiful space along the Green Line Creative Enterprise Zone in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul. The studio itself has a 2400-sq.-foot training hall with a suspended wooden floor specifically designed for the practice of T’ai Chi. There’s an adjacent smaller practice space and information room, an office, and changing rooms to complete the studio’s layout.

Our logo

The familiar yin yang symbol recognizes two polar forces of yin energy (receptive, contracting) and yang energy (creative, expanding). Our logo shows yin and yang energy flowing in and out of a third force, an unpolarized neutral energy called yuan, meaning original force. Yin and yang continuously revert into their original (yuan) form before being repolarized anew. The logo is a visual representation of the three streams of living energy that manifest in the practices we teach. They express themselves as movement (yang), stillness (yin), and the unity and ground that merge and connect them (yuan). If we hold clear intention to enter this center pearl and create from our original neutral core, we may more easily hold and engage with life’s many polarities.

The presence of the past

We teach Yang-style T’ai Chi Ch’uan as taught to us by Liang Tung-tsai (T. T. Liang). Master Liang was born in 1900 during the last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing Dynasty. He had many different teachers who learned from second-and-third, generation Yang family members, providing us a deep and rich Yang-style lineage. In 1993, he officially opened our T’ai Chi altar in recognition of our studio and its connection to our ancestors. Master Liang died in 2002 at the age of 102.

Another important stream of knowledge at Twin Cities T’ai Chi comes from Wai-lun Choi. Grandmaster Choi is the current lineage holder of the Chinese internal style Liu Ho Pa Fa Ch’uan (Six Harmony Eight Methods Boxing). The Liu Ho Pa Fa taught at our studio comes from Choi, along with a wealth of knowledge on T’ai Chi, Qigong, meditation, martial arts, and health.

Art, science, and spirit

Ancient wisdom traditions such as T’ai Chi, Qigong, and meditation have an important place in our modern society. Developing a regular practice in these arts has been shown to produce increased levels of energy, flexibility, and balance and an elevated sense of well-being. Scientific research is now beginning to explain the underlying physiological mechanisms of these practices. Our connection to the past is joined to the advances and integration of science and to the development of these practices as an art form that feeds the spirit of the individual. All a person needs to do is begin.