Tai Chi Yoga Connection Workshop

Yoga and tai chi are two of the most sophisticated movement arts ever developed. They come from different cultures, different traditions, and different philosophical frameworks. But at the deepest level, they are working toward the same thing — a body that moves with genuine ease, a nervous system in genuine balance, and a mind that can remain calm under any condition.

I have practiced tai chi every day since 1969. I have also practiced yoga for decades and taught alongside yoga teachers around the world. In that time I have seen clearly what each tradition offers that the other often lacks — and what tai chi’s internal principles can do for a yoga practice when they are applied directly.

This workshop is the result of that observation. It is designed specifically for yoga practitioners and teachers who want to take their practice to a level that yoga training alone does not reach.

What Tai Chi Offers Yoga Practitioners

Yoga has extraordinary depth in its understanding of the body, the breath, the nervous system, and the nature of mind. What it often lacks — particularly in Western yoga as currently taught — is a systematic method for working with gravity as an active principle, for releasing tension rather than overcoming it with effort, and for developing the quality of movement that the Chinese internal arts call Fangsong — genuine letting go throughout the entire body simultaneously.

Tai chi has spent four hundred years refining exactly these skills. The alignment principles of Chen style tai chi offer a formula for positioning every part of the body in correct relationship to gravity so that movement requires minimum effort and produces maximum effect. The principle of Fangsong — letting go, releasing all unnecessary tension — is perhaps the most practically valuable skill a yoga practitioner can develop, applicable to every asana, every transition, and every moment of stillness in the practice.

When a yoga practitioner understands how to use gravity rather than fight it, how to move from the center rather than from the extremities, and how to maintain genuine softness throughout a physically demanding practice, everything changes. Injuries become less frequent. Depth increases without force. The practice becomes sustainable over decades rather than depleting over years.

What the Workshop Covers

The structural alignment formula is the foundation of the workshop. Every part of the body — from the feet through the knees, hips, spine, shoulders, neck, and crown of the head — has a correct position in relationship to gravity. This formula, applied consistently, transforms the quality of any movement practice. Yoga practitioners typically find that it resolves alignment questions they have been working on for years and produces physical changes in their asana practice from the first session.

Fangsong — letting go. This is the central skill of internal martial arts practice and arguably the most important thing a yoga practitioner can learn from tai chi. Fangsong is not relaxation in the ordinary sense. It is the active, intelligent release of unnecessary tension throughout the entire body while maintaining structural integrity and full engagement. The workshop develops this skill through specific exercises and applies it directly to yoga movement and stillness.

Cultivating inner softness and smooth, flowing movement. Chen style tai chi’s foundational movement principle — silk reeling — produces a quality of continuous, spiraling, whole-body movement that transforms the experience of yoga transitions. Participants often describe their asana practice after even one session of silk reeling training as feeling completely different — more connected, more fluid, more effortless.

How to use gravity to your advantage. Gravity is constant, continuous, and completely free. Most movement practitioners unconsciously work against it most of the time. The workshop develops specific skills for working with gravity in asana practice — using it for traction, for alignment, and for the release of chronic muscular tension that no amount of active stretching can achieve.

Heightened awareness of tension storage. One of the most immediately practical outcomes of this workshop is a significant increase in the practitioner’s ability to detect exactly where tension is stored in the body and to release it intentionally. This skill transforms both practice and teaching.

Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is designed for yoga practitioners and teachers who have a genuine practice and want to deepen it. It is not an introduction to either yoga or tai chi. Participants should have at least a year of regular yoga practice.

It is particularly valuable for yoga teachers who want to give their students more precise guidance on alignment and release, for experienced practitioners who have plateaued and feel that something essential is missing, and for anyone who has experienced yoga-related injuries and wants to understand how to practice with genuine sustainability.

No prior tai chi experience is required.

Workshop Formats

The Tai Chi Yoga Connection workshop is available as both a weekend workshop (approximately 12 hours) and a six-day intensive (approximately 30 hours).

The weekend workshop introduces the core principles and gives participants enough direct experience to begin applying them independently. The six-day intensive allows for much deeper work — sufficient time for the body to absorb new patterns and for the integration of tai chi principles into established yoga practice to become genuinely fluent.

For yoga teacher training programs and studios looking for a distinctive continuing education offering, this workshop has been one of the most consistently transformative programs I have taught anywhere in the world.

See all available workshops at the Workshops page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to know tai chi to attend this workshop?

No. The workshop teaches tai chi principles as they apply to yoga practice. You do not need prior tai chi experience. What you need is a genuine yoga practice — at least a year of regular training — so that you have enough body awareness and movement vocabulary to apply what the workshop teaches directly and immediately.

Will this workshop conflict with what I have already learned in yoga?

No — it will deepen it. The principles taught in this workshop are not alternatives to yoga alignment but additions to it. They address dimensions of movement quality that yoga training often leaves undeveloped, particularly the relationship with gravity and the skill of genuine release. Most participants find that the workshop resolves longstanding questions in their yoga practice rather than complicating them.

Is this workshop appropriate for yoga teachers to offer continuing education credit?

This depends on the specific requirements of the continuing education body involved. Contact me directly to discuss what documentation is available and whether the workshop content meets the criteria for your specific situation.

What makes this workshop different from other tai chi for yoga programs?

Most tai chi for yoga programs teach tai chi movements as additions to yoga practice. This workshop teaches the internal principles of Chen style tai chi — the deep structural and movement principles developed over four hundred years — and applies them directly to yoga. The source is authentic: ten years of daily private instruction from Grandmaster Wang Xi’an at Chen Family Village. The application is precise: thirty years of teaching these principles to yoga practitioners around the world. There is no other program like it.