Over on the new Chen Wired for Access Forum, http://chenwired.com/forum/index.php - someone asked me to write up a few quick reviews of some of the Taiji & Nejia DVDs I've seen lately, and I thought to cut and paste them over here. Having been an aikidoka (and before that a tangsoo-do) student far longer than I've studied either the Yang Style (about 3-4 years) or the Chen Style (about 1.5-2 years to date) I've tried to limit my comments to production values, presentations and general comments on the subject material,... I leaving more in depth analysis of content to the long term practitioners, who might care to comment here,... Some of the programs reviewed below,... Ren Guang Yi & Lou Reed Chen Taijiquan: Old Frame & Straight Sword. http://www.ymaa.com/publishing/dvd/internal/chen_taijiquan Like most of the YMAA productions I've seen, this DVD program is exceptionally well produced and authored, and Ren, Guang-Yi demonstrations of Laojia Yilu (Old Frame 1st Road), and the 49-movement Straight Sword form are beautiful, crisp and sharp, to say the least. The footage alone makes this a worthwhile purchase in my book. While I like Lou Reed's narration [the man is sincerely in love with the style and clearly in awe of his teacher] I am of mixed feelings however about the ambient electronic soundtrack he contributed to the mix. A bit more tonal range would have helped. Like Brian Eno's contributions to the late albums by 80's bands like U2 or the Talking Heads, the music operates as an inescapable, thick warm blanket that kind of drapes over the viewer, inadvertantly detracting [in my humble opinion] from the experience of concentrating on Ren's form. Also of questionable value is an innovation(?) called "flippervision" where both forms, Liaojia Yilu and the Straight Sword form, is shown in variable rate slideshow comprised of almost 2,000 photos by photographer Martin von Haselberg. I'm not really sure what this adds to the proceedings, and the novelty value wears away pretty quickly. I would have preferred footage of Ren's performances during Reed's recent concert tours of Europe. To sum: Ren's performance really shines through regardless, and the quality of the professionally shot footage of him performing in Central Park is a real step up from many other demonstration DVDs (this program is about display and performance, not instruction) made me homesick, but in a good way. Recommended, despite the sleep inducing music and odd novelty extras. Currently available at a discount (@ $36) on the YMAA Publications Center webpage. Qichen Guo 18 Essentials From Laiojia Yilu http://www.chen-taiji-la.com/store/dVds.html My own instructor, Qichen Guo, a transplant from Henan Province to the alternately smoggy and sunny shores of Los Angeles, has offered a very similar program on the 18-Essentials, featuring three performances, two at normal speed (one shot in a similar park setting - the other taken during a World Taiji & Qigong Day Celebration) and a section by section slow motion demonstration ( a decided step up from "flippervision" despite more modest production values ) complemented by happier, livelier (if still ambient) music. (You can get that for $25 by contacting The Los Angeles Chen Style Taijiquan Association through our webpage, or simply PM'ing me.) Mike Sigman How to Do: Internal Strength http://www.plumflower.com/internal_strength.htm One of the first things I learned when I began perusing nejia-related online forums is that a lot of people hate Mike Sigman - or depending on your point of view - Mike Sigman has the knack of ****ing people off. However what I didn't read or see was much in the way of a substantive discussion of the approach that Sigman actually advocates, at least until I noticed he had a set of homemade DVDs on sale through Plumflower Press (go to - http://plumflower.com/frames7.htm & scroll down). Curiously I ordered the first of the set, the ackwardly titled How to Do: Internal Strength. In terms of production value, How To Do is a decently made, if terribly unspectacular presentation of a very commonsensical nuts-and -bolts approach to showing and explaining structural alignment and the strength one can derive from it's practice. Sigman clearly wants to demystify things for his audience, using terms like "ground path" to describe the route energy takes from point of contact (say your arm while your in the classic peng posture) to the ground beneath your feet and back up again. In this he does a decent job, coming off like an earnest and well-meaning high school football coach, though he also inadvertantly robs the practice of silk reeling drills, zhan zhuang and posture testing, of much of their inherent mystique and charm - but then again, I guess that's the point of his programs. He does get high marks for underscoring the importance of relaxation and coordination in movement, making it very clear that not being mindful enough of these requirements is, in his experience, why many dedicated students fail to achieve anything in the art - either because they weren't taught to, or their teachers lessons never quite sunk in. Where he runs into a bit of trouble, at least in my eyes, is his presentation of a "universal exercise" intended to combine breathing, silk reeling movement and relaxation - this may be based on a hunyuan standing qigong exercise... but in truth I didn't quite see how this exercise was necessarily any better than our standard Chen style silk reeling drills. (He does spend some time on the silk reeling exercise that resembles Lazily Tying Coat - which beginners should finf useful.) Also his initial explanation of fajin (something I understand he goes into more deeply in subsequent dvds in the series) seemed to be lacking something, despite what I think is a wise emphasis on cautioning students not to recklessly jump into the practice of "creating glitches in thier movement" before absorbing how to maintain relaxed coordinated and correct movement in their regular practice of the form. The program is @ an hour long, and sells for @$30. It should appeal to beginners who lack the patience or inclination to read and re-read things like suspect translations of the Tai Chi Classics for clues to how to improve one's practice, or have extreme difficulty understanding the dialect inflected English of teachers from abroad. I still don't quite understand is why he's so hated - but as noted above, that really might have more to do with an irritating on-line persona (such is his rep) than the substance of what he strives to get across to the viewer, which is kind of sad, 'cause it obscures the value of his project - demystifying aspects of Taiji practice that might confuse, and thus turn off some potential practitioners. Now I just wish Sigman threw in a demo of him practicing one of the forms. After all this, one cannot help but wonder just what his form and push hands practice looks like. Joanna Zorya & Julie Hinder, Tai Chi Concepts http://www.plumpub.com/sales/dvd/dvdcoll_TCzorya.htm Despite the fact that some who have watched Joanna Zorya's programs, disparage her gong fu, I cannot help but admire the way she presents her arguments for a martial focus to one's practice of Taijiquan as she demonstrates applications for Yang style postures, and relates them to the eight essential energies, silk reeling/undulation and the six harmonies. It's really all in the presentation in these discs: her programs are clean, clear, succinct and blessed with telling little details. There's also an interesting bit early one relating Taijiquan movement to Chinese weapons work, something that's commonly said about Xingyiquan, but something I've never before seen related to Taijiquan. "Concepts" is definitely worth watching, and is recommended as an easily-digested remedy for excessive air-headedness regarding Taiji practice among the terminally New Age-ey who might wander into your schools - that fact alone gives this program considerable value in my book. Joanna Zorya & Julie Hinder Xing Yi: Pi and Zhuan Applications http://www.plumpub.com/sales/dvd/dvdcoll_xyvarious.htm Zorya's (Sun Style?) Xingyiquan program is a real gem. Here she makes clever and effective use the green hilly sheep country in the north(?) of England - dotted with all sorts of picturesque stone ruins - to frame and offset their demonstrations of zhan zhuang postures, stepping drills, hand techniques, and applications, with an emphasis on santishi, splitting and drilling skills. I found myself utterly engrossed in the formal compositions of each frame of digital video, and as a result developed, in time a fascination with the relative simplicity of Xingyiquan as a result of watching this program - a testament to how effectively Zorya and Hinder frame every well-composed image. Both DVDs cost $35 and are about an hour in length each. Glenn Hairston: Internal Damage http://www.plumpub.com/sales/dvd/dvdcoll_TCpushhands.htm (top of page) or http://www.internaldamagetaichi.com/ Now this is an interesting, a undoubtably sincere attempt to package and sell Yang Style Taijiquan as, first and foremost, a martial art, to the hip hop generation. Hairston demonstrates sections of the Chen Man Ching short form, sequences that alternate with demonstrations of basic, if very boxer-like and straightforward applications of techniques embedded in the postures of the form - against the blighted urban backdrop of what looks to be a fenced off, graphitti covered, blasted and abandoned high school building. One might take issue with his performance of the form the form. People have disparaged his movement, as they disparaged Joanna Zorya's in the program above, though for different reasons - but there is no denying this is a very well-shot and edited, professional production that's earnest and entertaining, loaded with action, attitude and not a little humor (def. check out the 'blooper reel," essentially excerpts of Eric Randolph, Hairston's students, taking several bumps and bruises, "for the cause.") The DVD sells for @$40 and is at least an hour long. Wang Lijun: Xinjia Yilu & Wang Lijun: Xinjia Erlu Like my instructor, Wang Lijun is a student of Zhang Zijun, who also teaches Chen Style Taijiquan in the Los Angeles area. Thanks to excerpts posted on www.youtube.com, Wang Lijun might be better known for a series of DVDs mixing fictional sequences with Chinese Kung Fu based self defence techniques. These presentations of New Frame forms predate that more recent series. Originally shot on, and released as VHS videotapes, these are essentially instructional demonstrations of the two forms. I am sorry to say that the footage was poorly transferred from VHS to DVD, and is badly pixelated, esp. in the Xinjia Yilu program, which gets pretty distracting. Here the instructor also wears what looks like a black cotton (?) Taijiquan uniform compounding the difficulty in seeing what he is doing whenever one or both arms crossover in front of his torso - especially at this resolution. The fast forward, rewind and chapter skip functions either fail to work or malfunction in bewildering ways on both discs. Whenever the chapter skip function is engaged the footage jumps, sometimes in the wrong direction. The footage also starts skipping, with the occasional sudden dead stop, requiring the viewer to turn the DVD player on and off again to get the program going. I ended up returning these DVDs to the Chinatown bookstore where I got them, and despite having opened the cases, after viewing the DVDs on the region-free DVD player in the shop, the merchants refunded my money and pulled the other copies off the shelves, something I was deeply thankful for, given that these DVDs cost @$40 a piece. Avoid. Chen Zhonghua: Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method Yilu, Detailed Instructions Chen Zhonghua & Ronnie Yee: Teaching Push Hands in China 2004 Both DVDs @ $50 a piece, available from Martial China Online. http://www.binhound.net/component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.browse/category_id,13/Itemid,12/ Excellent content. Chen Zhonghua's perfomance of Yilu is relaxed yet powerful and energetic, matching those on Qichen Guo and Ren Guang Yi demonstrations mentioned above, if not a bit more inspiring somehow, perhaps because of the quality of the footage and the lack of new-age sythesized schmaltz on the soundtrack. The only drawback, and it's a minor one, is the utter oddness of the menu interface, but foretunately it's easily negotiated and quickly forgotten. Otherwise the production quality of the disc and the footage is on par with the Qichen Guo presentation above - a cut below Hairston and Ren Guangyi's programs, but a cut above Zorya and Sigmans. Chen and Yee's Push Hand demonstrations at well-attended seminars held in China in 2004 reminded me very much of Mitsugi Saotome-Sensei's occassionally stunning peformances at camps and seminars I attended in the late 80's. There are times when the effective and excellent demonstrations of technique look like magic. I've only had time for a cursory look at this program, but the one drawback I noted was a lack of supporting narration - the addition of which would have added immeasurably to this presentation. Highly Recommended. Yang Jwing Ming Tai Chi Fighting Set - 88 Posture, 2-Person Matching Set http://www.ymaa.com/publishing/tai_chi_DVD/internal/taiji_fighting_set_DVD YMAA produces some of the best authored DVDs for internal stylists I've ever seen. Yang Jwing Ming's presentation of this 88-posture two-man fighting set is no exception. Intended to serve as a bridge taking the student from push hands with sparring it's a pretty advanced form, containing a wealth of detail, testing the ability to sense and follow your practice partners intentions, angles of approach and continuous countermoves. Often techniques are not applied to their fullest extent - hence each instructional segment features one student applying a full technique on his partner, then the students back up and shows how the movement is countered, creating a chain of move, counter-move and so on. It soon becomes obvious that the form imparts an interesting sense of how a fight might play out between two equally profiecient yang stylists, and makes fascinating viewing. It also made me dearly wish such a form will be developed by someone for Chen stylists. Recommended, regardless of style. Any Comments Folks?
I really like Ren Guangyi's material. I haven't seen this exact dvd, but the other two videos I've seen were really top notch (19 move form and Lao jia yi lu).
I've always wanted to see his Liaojia Yilu Applications Videotape, but it doesnt seem to be available.
Internal Damage - not CMC but standard YCF, for what it's worth. CMC does not include Needle at Sea Bottom, Fan Through Back, White snake spits out Tongue, High Pat on Horse etc....
