FIVE ANIMALS PLAY QIGONG
Long Choreography by GEO
BEAR, CRANE, MONKEY, TIGER, DEER. The Five Animals Play Qigong is a classic form said to originate with a legendary Chinese doctor Hua Tua. There are many streams of practice all tracking back to this same root. Some are very short– with just a couple moves per animal– while others have many more. Over the past several years, I’ve been researching, practicing and teaching these animal movements mainly at Omega Institute in upstate NY. The heart of the set I know is from Dr. Alexander Feng at the Taoist Center in Oakland, California. I have also studied under a student of Dr. Jwing-Ming Yang of YMAA as well as familiarized with a very short version of these put out by a Chinese organization on DVD some years back. There are similarities in all these sets. Some variations in movements clearly are have the same root while some movements are unique to each.
What I’ve done, in brief, is brought together a long choreography of each animal in order for each animal to be a stand alone practice. I’ll have much more to write about these and how I am sharing them up ahead. There is much more richness to tap into and refinement in the movements to bring out. In the meantime, I’ve saved a draft version, done at a faster speed, as this is a work in progress. Here’s the link to a youtube playlist:
