Blue Sky T'ai Chi Ch'uan

Yang style is perhaps the most well known T'ai Chi Ch'uan style in the U.S. today, and Grandmaster William C. C. Chen is known as the most influential stylist of his generation. As a teenager he lived with the family of Professor Cheng Man-Ching and became nicknamed "the baby master" because he was soon deputed to teach other students, many of whom were older than he. William C. C. Chen has taught the "body mechanics" of martial arts all over the world with a warmth, generosity and intelligence that has led to the awe with which his students revere him.

Professor Cheng Man-ching, known as the "Master of Five Arts," was a student of the great Yang Chen-fu (1883-1936), himself a student of Yang Jian-hou (1842-1917), son of Yang Lu-chan (1799-1872). He developed the "short" form in the 1930's, to create a compact exercise that he could practice whenever he had time during the day, by taking out the repetitions and changing the sequence of moves, thus making the Yang style T'ai Chi Ch'uan form accessible to many people who might not otherwise have discovered its benefits.

Carolyn Hearn has studied the Yang short and long forms, Push-hands and sword form with William C. C. Chen since 1998 and is a certified by him to teach T'ai Chi Ch'uan.