Raised in Rank - Don Nonini

A belated congratulations to Don Nonini for a very successful Red Sash Test!

Supported by his partner, Sandy Smith-Nonini, Don finished the year 2023 by testing for his Red Sash, leading his classmates in the entire Wudangshan 108 Taijiquan form. This is a major accomplishment that Don has worked towards steadily for the last couple years.

Learning and performing the entire long form take patience, dedication and determination. And Don has sailed through with flying colors.

Congratulations to Don, who raises our rank when he raises his own. He is a great help to his fellow classmates and helps encourage us in our (poor!) pronunciation of the Chinese terms we attempt to use.

As we all know - NOW the true learning really begins!!

Congrats to Danny R!!

Congrats to Danny Rappleyea on his successful Red Sash Test!!

Danny has been working diligently to learn the entire Liehubafa form and the hard work has paid off! On December 6th, 2023, Danny lead his form class in the entire form and passed his short vocabulary test.

Danny is an great example of making progress even though schedules might get in the way. When he’s out of town and not able to come to classes, he always comes back well practiced and ready for a new posture.

This accomplishment is also a credit to his senior student. When one of us is raised in rank, we all are. Steve Cox, Susanna Henley, and Dorothy Wright can stand proudly with him!!

Congratulations again to Danny! As you know, the learning really begins at this point. And we all look forward to learning together - the fun is in the details!!

Raise in Rank - Brian White Red Sash

I’m delighted to congratulate Brian White on a very successful Red Sash test!

Brian completed the first stage of learning taiji by completed and performing the complete Wudangshan 108 Taiji long form on Sept 18th - a little shy of his 2 year anniversary!

Janice, his wife, joined his classmate to cheer on the performance.

Last week, Brian completed all the vocabulary recitation that goes along with the performance part of the test and we were happy to wrap up the dantian in a new Red Sash!!

As LaoMa would say “NOW is when your learning starts”.