Tai Chi … Southern style

ALBANY – If you wander by Tift Park on any given Tuesday or Thursday morning, you are likely to see a small group moving in unison, practicing an ancient form of Chinese martial art. However, for these practitioners, as it is for most modern practitioners, their primary focus is on health, mental well-being, and a literal and figurative balance in their lives.

Nancy Jones Presley was motivated to form the group after pulling out a DVD of a class she attended in Columbus in 2006, studying under the direction of a Tai Chi Master who practiced an obscure 42-form routine. She was first exposed to Tai Chi while traveling in China in 1982.

“I’m waking up in an upper-story hotel room in Beijing,” Presley said. “Out my window, the city is stirring into morning activity. There are few cars, many bicycles, and on the broad sidewalks, rooftops and small parks, hundreds of people are doing their exercises. Shirtless young men are acrobatically performing with swords and poles, while groups of people of all ages go through their Tai Chi routines. I had heard of Tai Chi but never saw it before, and I could see that if you did these routines every day with your friends, your useful life would be much longer. I resolved to learn it before I grew old.

“Flash forward to 2006. I am spending weekdays in Columbus, working on my master’s degree in Art Education and I find a Tai Chi class at the Y. I study for two years with the taciturn and somewhat mysterious Maurice Crenshaw, a tall, older black gentleman of military mien. I learn little about him other than he is a respiratory therapist and a martial arts sensei. He teaches a 42-form routine with exquisite attention to detail, and after two years, I ask him if I know the form well enough to teach it in Albany, and he says yes.”

Presley started teaching her first classes at the Lee County YMCA, but life challenges required her to focus her attentions elsewhere for more than a decade until the pandemic led to her viewing the DVD. That, in turn, inspired her to stand in front of a group of students once again. Today she practices a more universal form of the art with 24 classical forms.

“It’s a good reason to get up in the morning and come out here and see Nancy and everybody,” Chris Dayani, a member of the group, explained. “It is excellent for a good morning stretch, it’s a form of moving meditation. It improves balance, improves memory. In general, it’s a calming beautiful way to start the day.”

Kathleen Ellis, another member of the group, said, “I’m a physical therapist. The reason I wanted to do Tai Chi and have taught it is that it’s so good for the bones. Weight bearing for 45 minutes, it has a lot to do with getting out of your center of gravity and moving back in, turning around. From the standpoint of balance, it’s highly recommended. Then from an energetic point of view, it’s very peaceful. I feel we have this electromagnetic aura that we’re moving our healing hands through.

So people come here and are hurting and they leave here feeling great. It’s a win-win on multiple facets.”

Presley explained that Ellis was also a Tai Chi instructor who had previously instructed many of the students in the group.

“Learning something new is the challenge to me; that’s the attraction for me,” Elaine Gurley said.

Presley encouraged anyone who wanted to join the group to come to the park at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Because of COVID, we started doing this outdoors and we were talking about how much we enjoy practicing outdoors,” she said.

Staff Photo: Tom SeegmuellerStaff Photo: Tom Seegmueller