Tai Chi

Weekly evening Tai Chi classes will be held every Friday 7pm-8.30pm, starting on September 30th. The last lesson in this initial "taster" block of 4 lessons will be on Friday 21st October, but this will be extended with further weekly classes if there is sufficient interest.

Those attending should wear loose, comfortable clothing (no martial arts uniforms please). Footwear should be some style of trainers/gym shoes etc (no training in bare feet, thank you). The classes are open to anyone, of any age over 16.

The classes will be taught by Mark Entwistle, who has more than 40 years’ experience of practising and teaching martial arts - Japanese Shorinji Kan Jiu-Jitsu, Wing Chun Kung Fu (to black belt/teacher level) and the Chinese internal martial arts (Nei Jia), including Tai Chi, of the Rose Li School in London.

Rose Li School

The late Li Shaochiang, who was known in the West as Rose Li, had a background in Chinese Internal Martial Arts that was completely unique.

She is renowned for being one of the key individuals that introduced Chinese Internal Martial Arts (Nei Jia) - in particular the much rarer Ba Gua and Xing Yi - into the West.

She was taught by Deng Yunfeng (1873-1941), one of the most eminent teachers in the 'Golden Age' of Chinese martial arts.

Ms Li was born in Beijing in approximately 1914. From the age of eight, and for the next 15 years, she learned the full panoply of Chinese Internal Martial Arts: Xing Yi, Ba Gua and Tai Chi.

After obtaining an MA in Ethnology from Furen University in Beijing in 1947 she left China and travelled to the USA.

She eventually moved to the UK to take up a position in the Department of Oriental Studies at Durham University in England.

In 1975 she started teaching Internal Chinese Martial Arts classes both in Durham and subsequently in Manchester and London.

In 1986 she moved permanently to London where the school was then based. She ran her main school in King's Cross for a number of years until failing health meant she could no longer teach open access classes. Ms Li eventually passed away in 2001.

Theschool was initiated and named by Miss Li, prior to her death, so that her teaching lineage could continue.

The school remains the sole organisation authorised by Miss Li for continuing her teaching and is run under the auspices of its Principal Instructor, Maurice Passman. Mark has now been a member of the Rose Li School for more than a decade.

The aim of the system can be summed up as a way to allow the individual to move with greater freedom, power and articulation. The result is a deeply embodied awarenessbeneficial for both martial artists and in ordinary daily life.