Background information

Back in 1993 Catherine Robinson and Simon Rickard organised a T’ai Chi Teachers’ Weekend to bring together some of the many people who had been taught T’ai Chi by Pytt Geddes and had gone on to teach their own classes. There were many participants, including Pytt herself. Catherine had learnt with Pytt at The Place in the early seventies, and at the weekend she made contact, for the first time, with another of Pytt’s students from the same era – the Swedish dancer and T’ai Chi teacher Gudrun Gylling.

Find out more about Pytt here.

Subsequently Gudrun came over to share a few weekend workshops with Catherine, and the two found their practice and their teaching so harmonious that in 1995 the annual series of T’ai Chi Holidays was launched with a five-day course at Bedgebury School in Kent. The holidays quickly developed an international flavour, initially with a cohort of Austrian T’ai Chi players introduced by Pytt-trained teacher Elisabeth Ratzenboeck-Wearden, and subsequently with many Swedish students from Gudrun’s own classes and beyond. Almost from the beginning, the Holiday has included an element of voice-work or singing – first with inspirational voice-teacher Claire Hughes, then with the equally innovative Moa Brynnel who lives and works in Sweden. In 2007 Ali Burns, respected songwriter and teacher, joined us for the first time on our course in the Yorkshire Dales.

Before long, a pattern was established: the Holiday alternates yearly between locations in the UK and Scandinavia (usually Sweden). So far it’s happened in Kent and Sussex, Aberdeenshire and West Wales, Southern Sweden, on an island off Sweden’s west coast and on a very remote Danish island with no roads, water or electricity. In 2006 we made our first visit to a village to the north of Stockholm, and in 2007 the course took place in the idyllic surroundings of the Yorkshire Dales, close to the village of Kettlewell. Most recently, we ventured into the Arctic Circle to a venue in the Lofoten Islands, in the north of Norway - land of jagged peaks, clear cool air and the midnight sun.

Each year there is a contingent of ‘regulars’ who look forward to meeting up annually, interspersed with several newcomers who are always welcomed warmly and quickly absorbed into the group. Typically there might be about thirty participants ranging from experienced players and a handful of teachers to students still in their first year. Everyone works at their own level and there is no sense of hierarchy.

Pytt’s style of T’ai Chi is non-competitive, and we do our best to run our workshops and courses in the spirit of the Tao. Many of the players present at our original Teachers’ Weekend are still running classes and courses, and you can read about some of them on Related websites.

Photographs: Simon Rickard (top one) and Claes Svanteson (bottom two)