Hello friends,

Today I’m pleased to announce the next set of qigong workshops, starting with a return to Bear on Wednesday September 16th. But first, the routine schedule reminders.

• Morning taiji is confirmed for 11am on Wednesdays and starts this week, September 9th.

• Evening taiji will hopefully be 6pm on Thursdays, starting September 10th. But we don’t have enough registrations yet so this one is tentative. Please let me know if you’re interested.

• The daytime qigong series will start back up the following Monday, September 14th.

Back to today’s news. Building on the past year of occasional qigong workshops, I’m making them monthly.

The basic format will stay the same: an hour and a half in the early evening, mainly focused on the Five Animal Frolics. Having more frequent workshops will let us repeat each animal for a couple of consecutive sessions, which will hopefully help with learning the movements so you can practice at home. It will also let us branch out a little; each month I’ll introduce some related material from one or two other qigong sets I love:

The ba fa pan gen / “eight methods to firm your root” / spiral qigong set is a somewhat higher-energy practice that has a more direct martial arts connection than most qigong. It emphasises setting a really solid foundation with the legs (“firm your root”), while doing expansive, spiraling movements with the upper body. It’s also patterned on a series of animals, and has elements of imagery and story, so parts of it fit well with the Five Animal Frolics. For September we’ll incorporate Bear Sits On Mountain.

The yin yang medical qigong is a much softer, lighter practice that I often return to when I’m feeling unwell or run down but need to move. Its movements are done very gently, and I’ll incorporate pieces of it to ease into a class or warm down at the end.

Details for the first workshop:

• Date/time: Wednesday September 16th, 5:30-7pm.

• Venue: míqәn / Beacon Hill Park if the weather supports that, or I have a rain site booked in downtown Victoria if not. I’ll email participants the morning of the workshop to confirm and give directions.

• Cost: $16.50 (including fees).

• Registration: online at Bloom Tickets.

After that we’ll be moving indoors until April or May. The schedule for the rest of this year is a little irregular because of venue availability:

• Wednesday or Thursday October 21st or 22nd (also bear).

• Wednesday November 18th (crane / bird theme).

• Wednesday December 9th (crane / bird theme).

I’m hoping that for 2027 I can settle on a more consistent routine of the same day of the same week each month. But this depends on finding the right venue. If you know of anywhere that would be interested in hosting workshops like this at relatively low cost, please reply to this email and tell me about it.