Cherry Blossom Festival

The weather was great.......warm and Sunny!  Seems in this economy everyone wants to hang out....this was one of the most crowded Cherry Blossom Festivals in recent memory......there was no place to stand and have ice cream......which was perfect for the hot summer like day.  The SF Wushu Team was not quite able to field a lot of wushu performers that day........as many of the wushu students had other things to do or had already returned to school.  What was great was the youth team........they all showed up even before I arrived and had been working on their forms...............they were excited to perform.........yep, looks like I found my next generation of Wushu Team Members......jiayo Youth Team!  What was surprising was that I sort of threw the performance together as team members arrived.........big thanks to Cassie, Ely, Ben Aya......and of course to CF and Kevan...............otherwise it would have been(shudder)........30 minutes of Taiji Performances.........................great way to put people to sleep!!  As it turned out it was a fast pace performance with lots of variety.......woke up everyone after a half an hour of Iaido....Japanese Sword Drawing.........................!!  We ended the show with a special perfirmance of Taiji....with myself demonstrating the Chen Taiji Form.....then Jason and Ben demonstrating the Push Hands........and Glenn and Les finishing with Taiji Free fighting................the audienced really liked the last performance....as most people had never seen Taiji used as a martial art......everyone thinks of it as being like Yoga.  Tho in fact Taiji was originally  practiced only in the Imperial Palace....both the founders of Yang and Wu styles trained the Imperial Guard to fight and use Taiji........it  only became an excercise with the coming of the 20th century.  Many people in the audience told me afterwards it was one of the best performances that the SF Wushu Team has ever done............I guess that means I should plan these performances more spontaneously!!?

There were big crowds everywhere.

The following pictures are all from Anthony Lee.....thanks for the pics Anthony!!

Aya performing the Compulsory straightsword routine.

CF flying thru the air in her Nanquan Compulsory Routine.

Cassie followed with doulble hook axes.

I finished up Wushu Explosion with the Nine Section Whip.......explosion is just  5 minutes of everything we can do as fast as we can!

After, Explosion everyone did an individual performance.

Ben followed with Fanziquan.......he really looks like the guys in China...excellent flavor and spirit.

CF chopping across the stage with a Pudao....the horsecutter!

One of the routines most enjoyed by the audience was Ely's rendition of the Monkey Staff.  You can see the Youth Team members in the background checking out Ely's performance.

Kevan's Eagle showing both power and grace.

Ben is also really good at Praying Mantis................it's often too bad that most Wushu guys don't think much of Mantis because it has no Nandu......but try and get the springiness and looseness necessary to do this form well........it's harder than doing Nandu!

Our last  performance was combat Taiji....I began with a Chen Taiji form, followed   by push hands by Jason and Ben.

Glenn and Les followed up with Taiji at fast speed for defense!

 Overall it was a very satisfactory performance with great performances by everyone......especially the Youth Team........and the Taiji Team for not getting blown away by the wind while performing the Taiji Bagua Fan!  I think also important for student's to recognize Ben for his hard work....he has steadily continue to study and understand the characteristics and flavor of his forms.....his Fanziquan and Tanglangquan.........is now among the best in this country!!  I also want to thank again Anthony for the fine pictures of our performance!  Ok, finally got this up...........my computer froze and I lost part of this blog while tryting to upload.  Can be a real bum............yeech, PC's........anyways, have a nice one until nxt time....lata!!