Our 2015 annual Christmas Banquet held on 22 November this year provided a great celebration and memorable conclusion to our 25th Anniversary year. This annual Christmas banquet has traditionally provided a great opportunity for all in our Tai chi community to come together to enjoy great food and mix socially with the Masters, Instructors and students from the many College Tai Chi classes and centres around Melbourne. It also provides the opportunity to see some excellent performances from both the Masters and some other selected groups. This year’s special 25th anniversary celebration Banquet included many special highlights and memorable performances and provided a fitting conclusion to our 25th anniversary year.
The MC for the evening (Senior Instructor Snezana Dabic) welcomed all and, following introductory comments from Grand Master Eng Chor, introduced a short video specially prepared for this event in which both Grand Master (GM) Eng Chor and Senior Master (SM) Chin Min recounted their early years in “A Tai Chi journey -from Malaysia to Melbourne".
This video (click here to view) presented their recollections and a wonderful insight into their early years and their training well before coming to Australia in the 1980s. It also included discussion on their experiences and personal philosophies, including with class and instructor training, and some of the many challenges they experienced in setting up and running the new college in the early 1990s.
A number of great performances followed to the delight of the large audience. Performances by GM Eng Chor included the flowing Dayan (or Wild Goose) Qigong routine as well as the Wu Tai Chi routine. Performances by SM Chin Min included a graceful and flowing display of the Phoenix Fan and Tai Chi 42 Sword routines.
Master Tong Lo gave a performance of a new version of Yang Tai Chi, followed by Andy and Karen Law who demonstrated a very focussed and powerful version of Chen Tai Chi.
This was followed by a focussed, well-coordinated and extremely graceful performance of the Lohan Qiqong routine. This was done to some very striking music that was specially composed for the routine by a team from the Celestial Tai Chi College Camberwell class who won the Gold Medal at the WTQA championships in September. (A short video of extracts from these performances is planned in the New Year –monitor this page for updates).
The performances concluded with a striking presentation by SM Chin Min and his wife Beng Yan of an adaption of the Tai Chi 24 routine in reverse mirror positions with the addition of pushing hands - all requiring great concentration and coordination.
The Masters expressed great pleasure announcing some new appointments within the instructor group. The College enjoys a rigorous instructor training program with appointments recognising the achievement of proficiency through many levels. Special congratulations to Suzette Hosken on being promoted to Senior Instructor, Bruce Ellis to Instructor, and Jo Fraser and Christine Dowdall to Assistant Instructor.
In their closing comments, the Masters reflected on the contribution of the many students, helpers, trainees, assistant instructors, instructors and senior instructors who had assisted with development of the college over the last 25 years. All current members of the instructor group were presented with a certificate recognising their contribution to the college in this 25th year. As a grand finale, the Masters asked all those who had been with the college for over 20 years to come forward for presentation of a gift recognising their service to the growth of the college.
Allup, a memorable evening with all enjoying excellent and inspiring performances, great food and the continuing warm fellowship among our Tai chi fraternity. A number of photos showing some of the performances and presentations to add to some great memories of this special event in the history of the Celestial Tai Chi College. Click here for a video montage (5 minutes) of some of the performance highlights.
Senior Instructor Noel Schmidt
