Formosa Neijia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIMZKWOaWPI

There are so many things I love about this performance. For one, this is taiji with a presence. Chang has character and flavor to his form. Two, many of his moves are very interesting. Look at his grasp the bird’s tail. I love that, especially the way he does push (an). His brush knee is similar to the way I do it in my CPL taiji form — a commonality between some old Yang forms. That type of brush knee has a real down power to it.

Look at his “needle to the bottom of the sea” and then “fan through the back.” I love the reach and extension that he puts on those. Lots of body development through that kind of movement. Same thing with “part the wild horses mane.” That kind of extension is what can build power into the body.

Things that I find “interesting” would be his cloud hands and especially his “fair lady works the shuttles.” That was an interesting hip movement/turnaround at 3:05, don’t you think? Haha.

One of the things I love most about Chang is his posture and body development. Here was someone that had whole body power in spades. You can see it. His back is straight the whole time and his chest isn’t caved in like that of far too many taiji people. The forward lean gives him a nice energy to the front. I bet he could hit like a truck (I’ll post a pic of that soon!).

I even like the speed. He moves fast, but keeps it at a constant. A great performance of old Yang.