David Liu

Wicked problems, Skill Aquisition & Tai Chi as a way to Understand i

by David Liu on 2024/04/09

Below is an outline for a draft article. Feedback appreciated as it gets to a more final form!

About Me

I’ve taught dance for the last 20 years.  I’ve had the privilege of studying with some fantastic teachers of dance, including modern dance with Marni Wood (former dancer / director of the Martha Graham school) and with Ethel Dias (former teacher with the Alvin Ailey Extension).  Michael Walker (studied at American Ballet Theatre, Martha Graham & danced with Tony Bennett and Bett Midler).  I have the largest Argentine Tango instructional website on the internet.

This article is from the perspective of a US Modern Dance & Argentine Tango dancer & teacher who has had the pleasure to start a journey in learning Practical Method.

Key Skills for Success in Dance (or Anything)
Key Skills for Success in Dance (or Anything) are often not taught well.

In dance as a body of knowledge, there are a number of kinds of skills which contribute to amazing skill.   In dance, below are a selection of skills which are vital to achieve the highest levels of skill in dance.

  • Technique – being familiar with the vocabulary of your genre (Modern Dance, Ballet, Chinese Classical Dance, Argentine Tango, etc.)  and being able to execute it with good technique.
  • Connected / Integrated Body – the quality of the ability to move from the center, use ankle and Kau to support and drive movement, have the body relate as a logical system.
  • Musicality – How exactly are you on the beat? Does the emphasis of the movement relate to the emphasis and shape of the music? Is there a relationship to the larger phrases, etc.  
  • Choreographic Understanding & Expressiveness – oftentimes in choreography there is an intention to create a certain effect, communicate a certain emotion, etc.   And even when the choreographer hasn’t made or communicated clear decisions, the dancer often still needs to make these decisions.
My observation that many elements that are needed to succeed in any discipline are not taught in that discipline.   In dance, we do a pretty good job teaching technique.   We do a mediocre job teaching any of the others

I suspect the same could be said of many disciplines, for example, being a manager in any large corporate business … managers learn about the discipline they are responsible for (Finance, Risk Management, etc.) but are unlikely to have structured instruction around, for example, influence (Home – (cialdini.com) or negotiation (Chris Voss | The Black Swan Group (blackswanltd.com))

Wicked & Kind problems

Psychologist Dr. Robin M. Hogarth noted that some learning environments are kind, and some are wicked (The Two Settings of Kind and Wicked Learning Environments on JSTOR). In short, it is easier to learn when:
  • Feedback is accurate / correct
  • Feedback is rapid
  • The skill you are practicing is very similar to the skill you would use
As an example:
  • Learning by practicing chess is kind – you can ask a computer what the best move is right after you make a move, and use that to evaluate and teach you.   Feedback is immediate, accurate, and the learning is very similar to the practice of the skill
  • Learning by practicing strategic decision making is wicked – it takes years to see the impact of a decision, and the impact may be good despite your bad thought process.
Applying this paradigm to dance
  • Teachers are usually quite good at giving real-time, unambiguous feedback on technique, as well as educating students so they are better at assessing their performance on their own.
  • However, learning to have a more connected integrated body through the study of dance is much harder.  The grossest of problems are likely to get some feedback, but after a student has moved from “terrible” to “mediocre”, feedback is likely to stop, and even when it is present, it likely won’t be that specific.
The study of Practical Method Tai Chi

There is a wonderful combination of principle & application which has enabled the development of an amazing system 
  • Enough application / testing so that there is an impartial measure of success … did this technique work?    This is one place that dance often fails, as there is no impartial measure of success, which makes the quality of the feedback you get somewhat worse.
  • Principles, so that there is an ability to have infinitely high standards (not just, “did it work”) as well as broader applicability.
In Practical method, there is what I’d describe as a higher level of technology related to the use of the mechanics of the body.   A system of movement and the use of the human body which has had a number of advantages
  • Quality instruction & dedicated study which has been built over a number of generations, allowing an accretion of knowledge
  • A refined technique with an incredibly high standard
Which is widely applicable to a huge # of methods of human movement
  • A large range of possible movements.  For example, people who do Olympic weightlifting also have a great mechanism to learn movement, but the range of movements is much smaller.
  • Because Tai Chi Chuan involves another person, there are a number of principles which even apply to partner dancing.   
  • I’m sure a similar thing can be said more broadly (in any interaction of 2 people or perhaps even 2 bodies or 2 bodies mediated by a 3rd).  The point being that when there is something which is true, I believe it is usually true regardless of the scale and often across topics … the universe appears to be fractal.   This helps Tai Chi Chuan be a paradigm to understand dance (or the world).
Some Examples

To make the vast applicability to dance (and likely other things) clear, below follow a number of examples:

Tai Chi Chuan has an incredibly rigorous understanding of direction … much more so than dance typically does.  This augments dance dramatically both in: Executing moves “solo” but in a way which makes the directions starkly clear, and thus more impactful. Communication between a couple, so that the direction of the leader’s movements are dramatically clearer.

Tai Chi Chuan highlights that movement must be anchored in the unmoving.   One example application is the use of the standing foot & kua: Much of dance is done on 1 foot, and yet dancers are usually not taught to keep the standing foot & kua unmoving, so that the rest of the body has an anchor against which to move.   This dramatically improves not just balance, but also adds much more power & control behind the movement of the body or free leg, which have the power & stability of the earth behind it.

A separation of the practitioner from the object they are manipulating: In partner dance, especially argentine tango (or any closed-hold partner dance), it is incredibly common for people to be almost imprisoned by their connection to their partner.  This means that when 1 person does something even slightly off, this pulls the other person off because they don’t know how to be both connected to their partner and simultaneously separate.   Through the study of Tai Chi Chuan, I believe it is possible to overcome this almost universal tendency which is harmful.

There is an idea that parts of the body may protrude, interfering with the flow of the energy of a movement: This translates very directly into better mechanics for the body … when doing modern dance, for example, this maps directly to a part of the body being too tight or poorly aligned in a way that prevents the flow of the energy and expressiveness in the dance.   

Tossing or Telegraphing: Just as people often do extra movements which are not helpful in fighting, dancers do extra movements that are not helpful in the expression of a movement.   An iconic example is walking forward in the Argentine Tango, where many beginning leaders will habitually have a small unconscious drop prior to taking a step forward, in a way that makes their walk “bouncy”, and causes their musical accent to be bouncy rather than smooth.

In Conclusion

While I am still early in my study of Practical Method, I look forward to continuing my journey, and believe we all can reap great rewards in the use of Tai Chi Chuan to better our understanding of the world.

The Iowa Workshop Experience – Takeaways from a Newbie – part 2 i

by David Liu on 2023/07/20

This article is to summarize my technique takeaways.   So many!

In twisting the towel (day 1 or 2)
  • The body is like a Mercedes Benz symbol (legs and torso/head).  Practice with your head fixed in the ceiling in a spot, so the torso can’t move off a central line or move up & down.  I tried it with 2 folks holding a staff and it definitely made it a very different experience
  • The elbow rubs against the side of the body.  He had us practice that and pay attention to it.  I don’t yet know why it is important, but I will work to remember to do it this way
  • the foot of the side going forward drives the movement (without moving much).

Some principals ..
  • The body or parts of the body are often very fixed and you don’t move in space at all, and by using that constraint, then create pressure and the pressure goes through your body more.  When you let the body part move, then the power leaks out.  I need to not let my body move so that when I apply power, it goes through my body in the desired path, rather than leaking out near the parts that move.   He did a vastly more subtle version where it was almost more energetic, and as if he had 2 layers in his body, an outside and an inside.  I don’t understand it at all and I don’t think it is where I am yet.  He also showed what it was to be equally full everywhere, and to keep that even as moving.  These were super cool, very enlightened things.  Maybe after many years of hard work I can start to work on these.
  • Often there is a body part that doesn’t move at all (and more, keeps the same pressure and direction of pressure, if I am in contact with someone), and then other parts move.   I saw this illustrated in a place where we stepped forward with our qua hinging down below someone as our hand stayed fixed against them.  Another example in a moving step positive circle … I come in on them in the part where the arm comes in, and then extend the arm after I step.  
  • Direction – I still need to work on better aim (a lot).  However, sometimes I get it pretty well (I think).  Easier for me when the person is directly in front of me (but I still vary up/down, even then).   But the idea of aiming through a spot was helpful for me.  This was similar to a pole exercise Kelvin did, where you both pushed on the pull in a push-a-war (instead of tug a war).  By aiming through their hand, the power transmitted beautifully.  There was also spiraling the power in, which I can do a little bit of, but I don’t understand why it works at all, only that it does 🙂
  • Pung.  The sense of stretching in all directions.   You can also stretch inwards, and I believe (not sure) that there is often a sense of compression and expansion which sometimes alternate.  I should pay more attention to see when it is one or the other so that I am clear.  Another example is The arch of the legs & the exercise to pull the Qua away from each other … actively pull the qua away from each other or from one or the other if it is a fixed point.   I think stretching is something I need to pay more attention to … he’s mentioned it to me twice in the zoom class, and also has mentioned that my body is too loose.  This is probably one of the bigger takeaways for me.  (Although there are so many!)
  • In my own body and when watching him …. do I know what the fixed point is?   He made the comment in six sealing four closing that the fixed point could be the back qua (or the front, but he showed mostly with the back qua fixed).  I believe the qua is fixed and the muscles move around it, enabling extra motion.  
  • in opening the qua … I need to be more strict in my standards.  Don’t let my centerline give at all, and my qua doesn’t move much.  Then stretch more to get a little extra movement.  And look at my shoulders … have they moved forward relative to my qua at all? If so, then I was not strong enough.  This also makes me more aware of the facing of the hips .. because then that is also the facing of the torso … I let my waist turn a small amount many times … I need to use my qua, and also sometimes my foot placement.  For example, before I would step straight forward more often, and I see now that the feet are typically not straight forward on a line, with the hips completely facing that line.
  • 1 cannot see 3. The upper body relates to the qua/dantien and they relate to the feet. But if the upper body relates to the feet, you lose power. Similarly the shoulder relates to the elbow to the hand.

My lesson with him – Foundations – Twist the towel
  • Feet facing mostly forward ( I was too turned out)
  • Pung, be more actively full. I need to work on this more and actively. It is not my instinct.
  • the push is not in the arms (we always say this!)
  • My line / Point … wants to veer left.  Then right.  Then up.   Then gets stuck in the wrist … go through the fingers. I think I need to practice with a stick.
  • Things must be so tight that there are no other possibilities. This was very interesting and I did feel it.
  • He pushes me and my qua is a gear, but my elbow must move in and screwdriver ever so slightly.  
  • He slaps arm and qua redirects (note, shoulder also goes down as a consequence of the qua)
  • Push from the qua … but there is no push!! It is the rotation of the gear, in response to a different imaginary gear. This is the tai chi symbol.   It feels like this is the beginning of a big idea.
  • Then there is a lock of the qua to the elbow.  A spiral drilling from shoulder, elbow, wrist into the line
  • In passing – Curve spine … huge curve, Head down like curve, then pull hea duplicate and find vertical.  Everything is always extreme. I don’t think this was as important for me as some of the others, but something to remember.
  • He was pushing me.  You get stuck … then push with the rear qua more … then split more (right/left) … then spiral in more
  • The Rotation / Spiral in the elbow was the same in other places … there was a place where we were pushing our opponent away, and the elbow spiraled in, in a similar way

While practicing twisting the towel
  • Do not let the shoulder move. It wants to cause my spine to bend sideways. And also to rotate
  • My qua doesn’t have that much mobility. Don’t let myself over-rotate in either my qua or my shoulders (but do work on getting a bit more through stretch)
  • keep my hand on the line
  • many other things above (the bridge/arch of my qua/thighs / pung, etc.)

Push Hands – some things I got from various disciples (Brennon, Kelvin, Levi, etc. Thank you)
  • Method 1
  • in a position where I have a leg behind them and the same arm in front
  • push with arm to lock them
  • then just go down in to the pit
  • Method 2
    • lock their body with underhooks, hips facing them (probably any lock will do)
    • reach back with a leg
    • bring my opposite shoulder to that leg
    • somehow this squeezes them out
  • Method 3
    • lock a part of the person’s body
    • imagine the opponent has a fixed line going through them vertically
    • work around that fixed line (for example, left hand locking their body and pushing up and over their back, while right hand locks torso and pulls down and to my back)
  • Method 4
    • aim narrowly through them with my elbows and hands
    • make this line increasingly narrow
    • pretty soon their line is too small and they are squeezed out
  • Other random push hands comments (from Brennon)
    • you can change the battle by keeping the pressure but changing the spot that has the pressure (their left hand to your right, for example)
    • you can change your body, while keeping the direction, place & line of pressure the same
    • if they are pushing you, you can dissipate things by keeping them on the same line and moving ever so slightly back on that line

    He taught Armwrestling in a Tai-Chi Style
    • push hard into the table, and power will shoot up against that push
    • Stretch through your body, past the opponent’s body (perhaps with some curl in your spine & reach through your arm / forearm / hand).  Pointing past him in the line helps.
    • You can then pick up your opponent / go around behind them.  I think this helped cause them to lose power
    • Then crank, but not from your shoulder – keep your hand / front shoulder / back shoulder locked as one unit, and crank from below.  I think also keep your shoulder connected to your qua
    • He also mentioned that he would make the lever even longer by orienting it behind him … I saw him do it and my eyes saw it, but I don’t understand at all how to do it.

    Yilu corrections for me from Master Chen
    • Walk Diagonally and Twist Step:  
    • the first step
    • aimed forward very directly, and the aim is also my body curled so that the curve of my spine also aims forward
    • elbows behind fists
    • body turned a little sideways, so my right shoulder is somewhat behind my left
  • when my right arm comes around to meet my left, my left doesn’t move in space, and my right comes forward to meet it
  • then my arms stay fixed in space, and I pull my lower body forward.  This was difficult, because it feels like you will fall backwards, but you need to pull with your forward foot and shift the lower body and believe it is possible.
  • when expanding my arms
    • stretch more, just a little bit in front of the horizontal line, and often roughly shoulder level.  This happened a few times
  • in fetch water
    • I was rising up … I didn’t understand one of his earlier instructions.  It should be “as if” I was rising up, without rising up
  • in the step to go low, keep the long pull I created in fetch water, and move it as if holding a staff
  • Then I mimicked him through the end of the 1st 13.  The only correction was to stretch more in a few places, but being able to be behind him mimicking him was helpful.  I tried to feel like I was wearing his body 

    • Yilu corrections (mostly Master Chen, but also some classes others gave)
    • Buddah’s Warrior Pounds Mortar 
    • keep my front hand fixed in space as I rotate.   Rotation happens around the central line.  The back arm hits backwards, but doesn’t move .. it is from the rotation along the central line.   
    • Extend the leg by digging down and then having it pull me forward while the back also resists (from Spencer’s class)
  • Block touching Coat
    • wrist is strong, and as hands go up, the body goes down & upper back curls a little.   I was curling my wrist to get up and that isn’t it.  It is about the down of the body changing things
  • six sealing four closing
    • back qua is fixed
    • left hand doesn’t move at all … usually it moves, causing the cut to be dramatically reduced
  • single whip
    • there was a correction for spencer where the 2 sides where long and the impact on the beak hand caused the other hand to shoot out energy.  Then even more amazing, the open hand shot energy to the beak.  It was amazing and I bet this is just another example of “it’s always like that”.  Probably every correction is just an example of “it’s always like that’.
  • turn left to pound mortar
    • the same shock of single whip above carried through to the following movements.  I am not at this level yet, but still amazing.  
  • White Crane spreads it’s wings
    • My right hand was too high – eye level
    • he corrected someone that energy is in the back as well as the front – very interesting
  • Initial Closing
    • the right elbow comes in (not the hand – almost everyone was doing this wrong, certainly including me!)
    • then there is a small circle (from the dantien/qua) so that the right hand encircles the opponent’s hand
  • Walk diagonally & twist step (my corrections above)
  • second closing (my corrections above)
  • lean with back
    • lock left leg more where it was when I grab my opponent 
  • Flashing the back
    • the punches are elastic

    PS – obviously too much for me to do well.  Nonetheless, I will try to remember as much as I can and follow instructions as best I can in my practice.  This has been a wonderful re-beginning.  

    The Iowa Workshop Experience – Experience from a Newbie – part 1 i

    by David Liu on 2023/07/20

    My background & early exposure

    I saw videos of Master Chen on youtube and I was Very impressed.  I watched them periodically until one day, 4 years later, I registered for a workshop with him in Toronto (after I was laid off, and had a bit of both time and money).   It was clear that he had an amazing understanding of movement (and obviously, Practical Method Tai Chi Chuan).

    One event that happened in that 1st workshop / exposure to him, which was an enlightenment, was that I touched his foot as he was doing “in with elbow”.   And I understood that all movement was driven by his foot / qua / center system.  And that after studying dance actively for 20 years, I didn’t know anything about how to use my legs or hips.

    I started taking his online classes, and they were full of great exercises and insightful corrections.  I hope I am improving there, but I think it is slow.  But regardless, even if the body is improving slowly, there is no doubt that my eye / ability to understand is evolving, and that this is very valuable.  I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to study in these classes with him online.

    I went to the Iowa workshop after taking that 1st workshop in Toronto, and then studying videos and online for about 7 months

    A week in Iowa

    After the first few days, I began to understand what “stretch” means.   He had given me this correction a couple of times in the online classes, and I wanted to work on it – I thought it was an important thing for me to focus on, but I didn’t really know what to do.  Now I begin to know what to do.  This was very satisfying. My current understanding is that it is neither tensing the muscles in place, nor is it “limply” stretching, but rather an extreme extension which creates space in joints and charges up the facia/tendons/etc, in the desired direction.

    There were also many pieces of instruction on different details that start to educate my eye … many more details later.

    A private lesson with Master Chen

    I am so lucky that I have access to a master who is a great practitioner, a great teacher, very open with information & willingness to let you feel him do things, and who speaks English and is in North America.
    I registered for a private lesson with him.   You go to a workshop and having a little bit of hands on, on the topic that he feels is most important for you, really helps you be on a right path.   I felt I had my first taste of what it is to feel what it is to do practical method.   I remind myself to follow instructions, however, and not just go back to the feeling.

    I think my capacity went up a notch in the first few days of the workshop, and another notch after my lesson with Master Chen.  I started to better understand “gears” in the body, and the way you use a gear to indirectly create power … the movement is perpendicular or at a 45% angle, and I genuinely need to not let my body try to drive the wanted result, but just do the technique.  Not “end game”.   So hard.  

    People

    Many wonderful people – helpful & generous, but also very interesting, and with their own unique insights into life in general. Lou mentioned to me in the Toronto workshop that it was a great group of people, but I didn’t understand. Let me say in writing, Lou – you were right, so many great people 🙂

    I would come without the community, because Master Chen and his teachings are so profound, but the community definitely makes it more fun 🙂

    Psychology & Science. Thinking

    Master Chen also shares many stories which are educational.   He’ll talk about science and make analogies with Tai Chi.  I majored in physics in college, and most people who talk about physics but don’t know it are spouting garbage.  Master Chen is not – what he says is profound, relevant, and such a completely different perspective.   It is very interesting.

    And there are periodic stories about how we should think as students to progress, to not be in our own way.   He said, and I am sure he is right, that each of these funny stories about other people is also a story about us.  That the story he was telling about someone else where the other person was being so wrong-headed, is actually a story about me / each of us (just more subtle).  I need to be careful of being too wrongheaded, of not listening enough.  Of not believing enough.  Of interpreting too much through a personal lens.  

    One example is often when people ask questions that are not on the topic he is teaching, he’ll make it clear that it isn’t a good question.  This really isn’t the typical American way, but it is clear he is correct … better to focus 100% on what he is saying and talking about, so you have more hope of learning it.   Having a distracted mind can only make something that is already difficult even harder!  

    There are many ways that my thinking is too opinionated, I think.  But at the same time, I do know he is such a master of this, and I need to not just listen, but hopefully learn to think more like he thinks.  I appreciate that he doesn’t just work to teach us Tai Chi, but also works to teach us how to think and learn.  Kelvin & Winston also had a great conversation on this same topic with a couple of folks late one night – thank you both for your help in this workshop!

    I think I also am getting a better appreciation for the use of physical props, and to practice in the right way.  Every time I used a prop I realized how I wasn’t as accurate as I thought.  

    Realizing there is hope

    I had a large part of me that believed I would never “get” it.  That there was too much to the practical method.   The more I learn, the  more nuanced, subtle & difficult it gets.  

    I studied for the 8 months after my 1st workshop online, and honestly, I didn’t think I would develop any skill.  If studying Practical Method was climbing Mt Everest, I thought I would start hiking, and not even be able to make it to base camp.   With such a bleak view of my future progress, why did I stick to it?   The answer is that I thought I would learn amazing amounts along my journey, even if I didn’t get very far.   It had already had dramatic changes in my dancing and movement.   With rewards so high, and the luck of such an opportunity to study with him, how could I not?

    However … in this workshop, I realized that with hard work and time … I could learn!  I could start to climb Everest.   Realistically, I’ll never reach the summit.  I will never be even close to as good as Master Chen.  But there is hope now … I see that I can make real progress, and begin the ascent.   Somehow knowing that I can make real progress is very encouraging.  The impossible has now become possible.