Friday, February 1, 2013

The Yang Short Form

The Yang short form, which is also known by variants of "the 24 form," "the 24 movements," "the simplified form," etc., is the official "sport" or "wushu" form of t'ai chi ch'uan (太極拳, also romainized as taijiquan). Although it is primarily derivative of the Yang branch of t'ai chi, Yang masters often disavow it.

Yet, putting those disputes and various mystical gildings to the side, it is still quite beautiful. I thought this performance, by Gao Jiamin, was particularly taking:



Here it is from the back and here are some of the key moves with their English names. And, for reference, here's a video of famous practitioner Chen Man-Ch'ing doing his shortened form of the Yang style (I'd embed this one as it is quite beautiful, too, but doing so has been disabled ... which, frankly, is just obnoxious).

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