When the Rotorua Chinese Association was celebrating their country’s 60th Anniversary, Lei Lei and others gave
demonstrations of Tai Chi, one being the Tai Chi Fan Form. As a member of a Tai Chi class and a member of the Rotorua China Friendship Society I suggested that we invite Lei Lei to give the class a demonstration because the others had not had the good fortune to see this beautiful demonstration. This demonstration for our class took place at our end of the year function.
Unfortunately due to a change of circumstances Jordan Freeman, the tutor of Tai Chi classes at Parksyde (the Older Persons Community Centre) left Rotorua at the end of this June. This class started some 4 years ago as a continuation of the ACC Programme of the Modified Tai Chi for Over 55’s.
Due to Jordan’s love of Tai Chi and the fact that the class had continued over such a long period of time she had the fortitude to contact Lei Lei to see if she would continue with the class. The Rotorua Chinese Association supported Lei Lei in ensuring that Tai Chi classes continued at Parksyde, This class has now grown in size with both Europeans and Chinese now attending, there are a couple of us from the China Friendship Society as well.
We are fortunate in having such a competent and professional tutor to continue our efforts to learn this form of exercise which has been apart of the Chinese culture for centuries. We have gone back to the basic Tai Chi movements along with warm up and breathing exercises. It has also given us a chance to bring West and East together. Lei Lei is also attempting to teach us to count in Chinese ! As Lei Lei says it is not hard to do just relax and enjoy. With the way the class is growing in size I think we all must be enjoying this wonderful experience.
