Welcome to our website. Please feel free to share with friends who may have an interest in tai chi chuan and qigong.

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We are doing our best to keep up to date with coming events, class schedules and other items of interest.  Do check back regularly and let us know if you have any photos or stories you would like to share with our community.

 

About Tai Chi

While tai chi chuan or taijiquan originated as a martial art, most are attracted to its health and meditative aspects. The many benefits of tai chi include calming the mind, relaxing the body, increasing strength and flexibility, relieving stress and improving general health. 

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Tai Chi has been scientifically proven to aid in improving balance, strength, coordination, and brain function.  Studies have also shown that it boosts immunity. Proficiency in any form of Tai Chi is a lifelong endeavour — we never stop learning!

 

About Tai Chi Yukon

In 1989, Cheryl Buchan moved to Whitehorse and began teaching tai chi. Ninety students tried to sign up for that first class. Her enthusiasm and gentle teaching style attracted many practitioners and within a few years, her senior students also began teaching. 

 

Tai Chi Yukon became a non-profit society in 1991. Every year we offer as many as ten weekly classes aimed at all levels from beginners to tai chi “players” who have been practicing for several years. Jeanie Maddison, our “Elder,” taught seniors’ classes from 1994 until her death in 2001. To honour her memory, our instructors have continued offering these classes at no charge. 

 

While we have occasional classes in other styles, we primarily practice and teach the Yang style as transmitted by Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo and his grandson Grandmaster Yang Jun. Tai Chi Yukon offers special camps and seminars with visiting instructors once or twice a year. Yukon tai chi instructors also travel elsewhere to gain new skills and fresh insights. 

 

Our senior instructor, Pam Boyde, has travelled to China several times as well as attending several seminars with Yang Jun in North America. In October 2007, Pam became the first Canadian to be certified as an instructor in the Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan organization. At an international symposium in Louisville, she was also recognized as a disciple by Grandmaster Yang Jun, a great honour! Three of our instructors – Helene Dobrowolsky, Jo-Ann Gates and Lisa Pan – have also studied in China and ranked within this system. Recently Alison Conant also ranked at an International Tai Chi Symposium and Tournament.

 

In 2019, Tai Chi Yukon celebrated our 30th anniversary. We had a wonderful birthday party on April 27, World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre. On this occasion, Chief Instructor Pam Boyde announced that Tai Chi Yukon had been approved as an affiliated school with the International Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association, the third such school in Canada.