WHITE crane spreads its wings. Repulse the monkey. Embrace the tiger. Sound unfamiliar? Not to Bernice Moir. She's been practising tai chi for 12 years now.
Bernice was close to 60 when she began, still working full time and caring for her aging parents. Looking for a fitness program with a mental element, she found tai chi.
"Tai chi is so choreographed that the need to focus on the movements took my mind off my worries," she explains. "There is a certain meditative aspect that comes over time. It's very calming and I've learned a lot about patience."
Classes were held in West Vancouver's old recreation centre when Bernice started. Back then, students at various levels of proficiency were taught together in one room. Those multi-level classes, particularly for beginners learning the complex sequences of postures, were challenging for the students and teacher, Brad Wyatt.
Wyatt had been a student of tai chi until 1987 when his teachers moved away and he inherited their classes. "I had to learn to teach very quickly," he says.
"Fortunately, when you teach, you learn fast."
Wyatt explains the progressive nature of tai chi. At the introductory level, students focus on learning the complex series of forms. This takes time and requires the full attention of both student and teacher. Students progress at their own pace through the intermediate and advanced levels with many, like Bernice, incorporating tai chi into their daily lives.
Today, the three levels of tai chi practice are offered in separate classes at West Vancouver Seniors' Activity Centre. Wyatt believes this is unique in the Lower Mainland, certainly on the North Shore. As well, the centre offers a class in qi gong that focuses on breathing and the flow of energy in the body and a class that incorporates swords into the practice.
Yes, swords. Tai chi started as a martial art in China a very long time ago. The ancient choreography represents stylized forms found in nature that influence our bodies, minds and spirits. Performed mindfully, the sequence of poses, or forms, in tai chi improves balance, flexibility and co-ordination - both mental and physical. Range of motion and lower body strength are increased. Regular practice has been proven to lower blood pressure. Osteoporosis Canada recommends tai chi and golfers use it to improve their swing.
Around the same time that she began tai chi, a long-held wish came true for Bernice.
On her 60th birthday, her husband John presented her with a piano. "I had always wanted a piano but had neither the time nor the money to purchase one," she says.
Bernice was born in Smithers in 1941. Her family moved around the province as her father found work in the Esquimalt shipyards during the war and in the mines of northern British Columbia before settling in Burnaby.
By the mid-1970s, Bernice was a single mother living in Deep Cove. She met John through mutual friends in 1976 and they married 10 years later. "We didn't want to rush into anything," says Bernice.
Interested in food production and distribution, Bernice went back to school, acquiring a diploma in agricultural food production from BCIT. That led to a job in the chemistry department
at Capilano College where she worked until she retired nine years ago.
These days, music is as important in Bernice's life as her tai chi practice. An ardent student of the piano, she is working on a Chopin waltz, a Mozart sonata and a minuetto by Scarlatti at her home within walking distance of the seniors centre. Bernice sings too, although she insists she's not ready for Carnegie Hall just yet. She belongs to Local Vocals, a group that sings world music, gospel and bluegrass for pleasure only.
Tai chi is beneficial at any age; however, both Wyatt the teacher and Bernice the student recommend beginning sooner rather than later.
The payoff? "It will sustain you for a long, long time," says Bernice.
For more information on tai chi classes, call the West Vancouver Seniors' Activity Centre at 604-925-7580 or visit www.westvancouver. ca.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or email her at [email protected].
