Wu T'ai Chi, Kao Style: As Practiced and Taught by Margaret Emerson

This is a rare Wu style T'ai Chi that was taught to Margaret Emerson over a period of 6 years by Kao Ching-hua. Kao learned the form as a girl in pre-Revolutionary China. She used it to come back from a debilitating heart ailment that interrupted her career as a high school athlete. Kao later taught T'ai Chi to the women students during her college years at National Central University in Shanghai. She was made the only honorary female member of the all-male T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association of Shanghai. This form was taught to the aristocracy--to people who didn't have to defend themselves--so the emphasis moved away from the martial and toward mental and physical fitness and meditation. Ms. Emerson also took up T'ai Chi as part of a successful healing program. She has been practicing this style for 30 years and teaching it for 20 years. Wu T'ai Chi, Kao Style is a beautiful, circular form that has 104 movements. The DVD includes: background on the style, traditional warm-ups, a demonstration of the sequence shown split-screen (front and back are seen simultaneously), step-by-step instruction, and principles and concepts. Warm-up and sequence lists are included.