BREATH-SOUND-MOVEMENT • CHI GUNG
IMAGINATION & INTENTION •  STANDING & WALKING MEDITATION
BALANCE • CENTERING & GROUNDING

The Principles of T'ai Chi and The Art of Slowing Down
Mondays 6 - 7 PM
For Information and Registration, call: (510) 559-8892
Private Lessons Available

Karina brings to her 30 years of teaching and extensive background and training in T'ai Chi Chu'an, dance, physical theater, music, voice and art. She has coached many artists, unleashing creative potential by exploring the “hidden.” Her teaching focuses on listening deeply and cultivating awareness. Past workshops include: Finding Our Voices and River of Breath, her Chi Flow class at the Claremont Spa, and 6 years of Creative Expression at drug rehab facilities and a federal women's prison. Her workshop Walking in Balance is an outdoor practice. Karina is featured in Stephanie Hoppe’s “Sharp Spear, Crystal Mirror: Martial Arts in Women’s Lives.”

For almost thirty years, I have allowed the practice of T’ai Chi Ch’uan to work on me and through me. As it merged over the years with other skills and interests of mine, I increasingly saw myself teaching from the perspective of a woman born into Western culture. For me, T’ai Chi as the “mother of all” is a musical sphere that embraces the melodies of yin and yang, the pulse of full and empty, the breath of in and out. When this ancient philosophy is experienced in the body along with gentle awareness, a song arises, we remember, and new pathways open, as well as forgotten possibilities. We dare to unlearn.

The laws of our human existence come into focus: gravity & alignment, growing roots & playful balance, resonance & harmony, inter-relatedness & attunement. T’ai Chi becomes a life long discovery: teaching us humility, flexibility and perseverance, providing us with an honest mirror and a structure for self-cultivation. I love that inner strength is emphasized over muscle power: “Softness overcomes hardness”, say the classics, and urge us to learn to “invest in loss.”

T'ai Chi Chu'an is an ancient practice, full of paradoxes and wisdom, reminding us of our sacred humble part in Nature and Spirit. As we practice slowing down, the sacredness of our breath, movement and everyday life arises before us, comforting our overloaded bodies and minds with ease, addressing our longing for connection, spaciousness, balance and serenity.

Be still as a mountain, move like a great river