Greetings All,
My name in Jim Donnelly. My wife is Shifu Loretta Donnelly. My wife was the former apprentice (or #1 as the Chinese sometimes term it) to the late taijiquan Grandmaster Jou Tsung Hwa. After performing baishi (an oath of loyalty and dedication) with Grandmaster Jou, she served as the Operations Director of her teachers legendary 103-acre Tai Chi Farm (www.TaiChiFarm.org). Her duties included directing the annual Zhang San Feng Festival, the oldest tai chi convention in the country. Attracting 700 to 1000 people per year, the Festival became known as the "woodstock" of tai chi, earning the motto, "leave your egos at the door, come in friendship." Sadly, in 1998, Grandmaster Jou was killed in an auto accident at the age of 81. My wife continued as caretaker of Tai Chi Farm, running his school and teaching all his classes for the next two years. The last Zhang San Feng Festival held at Tai Chi Farm was in 1999, the same year I arrived at the Farm to take up taiji lessons with Shifu Loretta. Tai Chi Farm was finally closed down in 2000, sold to a land developer who turned the beautiful property into a gated community.
In 2001, Shifu Loretta (now my wife), with my assistance, dedicated a monument to Grandmaster Jou in Warwick Town Park, in Warwick NY (the home town of Tai Chi Farm). To this day it stands as the only publicly held monument (to our knowledge) to a taiji Grandmaster anywhere in the U.S. In 2002, my wife and I founded the American Society of Internal Arts, an organization dedicated to the promotion of the internal arts (taiji, bagua, xingyi, etc.) (www.AmericanSocietyOfInternalArts.org). In 2003, we revived the annual Zhang San Feng Festival (renaming it the annual Zhang San Feng Festival & Dao of Health Expo) at East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg PA (in the Poconos). The event brings together masters in the Chinese arts from all over the country to offer "hands on" workshops for three days (www.TaiChiFest.com). By 2003, I had left my career in computers to pursue teaching taiji full-time with my wife. In 2004, we broke ground for our new school, Internal Gardens School of Classical Taijiquan (www.InternalGardens.com).
Today we are both full-time Shifus (teachers of a physical art) of taiji, continuing to run our organization and tai chi festival. My wife is still my taiji shifu and continues to teach me all that Grandmaster Jou had to offer. At the same time, the two of us learn new material together and refine our existing skills by hosting workshops at our school and the Festival with some of the top masters in Chinese internal arts in the country. Specifically we continue to study with Dr. John Painter, a trainer of law enforcement for over 30 years and often seen on the covers of magazines including Inside Kungfu magazine and Black Belt magazine. We also study with Dr. Gary Torres, the "#1" of legendary Grandmaster Peter Kwok and an incredible master in his own right. It is a good life.
My name in Jim Donnelly. My wife is Shifu Loretta Donnelly. My wife was the former apprentice (or #1 as the Chinese sometimes term it) to the late taijiquan Grandmaster Jou Tsung Hwa. After performing baishi (an oath of loyalty and dedication) with Grandmaster Jou, she served as the Operations Director of her teachers legendary 103-acre Tai Chi Farm (www.TaiChiFarm.org). Her duties included directing the annual Zhang San Feng Festival, the oldest tai chi convention in the country. Attracting 700 to 1000 people per year, the Festival became known as the "woodstock" of tai chi, earning the motto, "leave your egos at the door, come in friendship." Sadly, in 1998, Grandmaster Jou was killed in an auto accident at the age of 81. My wife continued as caretaker of Tai Chi Farm, running his school and teaching all his classes for the next two years. The last Zhang San Feng Festival held at Tai Chi Farm was in 1999, the same year I arrived at the Farm to take up taiji lessons with Shifu Loretta. Tai Chi Farm was finally closed down in 2000, sold to a land developer who turned the beautiful property into a gated community.
In 2001, Shifu Loretta (now my wife), with my assistance, dedicated a monument to Grandmaster Jou in Warwick Town Park, in Warwick NY (the home town of Tai Chi Farm). To this day it stands as the only publicly held monument (to our knowledge) to a taiji Grandmaster anywhere in the U.S. In 2002, my wife and I founded the American Society of Internal Arts, an organization dedicated to the promotion of the internal arts (taiji, bagua, xingyi, etc.) (www.AmericanSocietyOfInternalArts.org). In 2003, we revived the annual Zhang San Feng Festival (renaming it the annual Zhang San Feng Festival & Dao of Health Expo) at East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg PA (in the Poconos). The event brings together masters in the Chinese arts from all over the country to offer "hands on" workshops for three days (www.TaiChiFest.com). By 2003, I had left my career in computers to pursue teaching taiji full-time with my wife. In 2004, we broke ground for our new school, Internal Gardens School of Classical Taijiquan (www.InternalGardens.com).
Today we are both full-time Shifus (teachers of a physical art) of taiji, continuing to run our organization and tai chi festival. My wife is still my taiji shifu and continues to teach me all that Grandmaster Jou had to offer. At the same time, the two of us learn new material together and refine our existing skills by hosting workshops at our school and the Festival with some of the top masters in Chinese internal arts in the country. Specifically we continue to study with Dr. John Painter, a trainer of law enforcement for over 30 years and often seen on the covers of magazines including Inside Kungfu magazine and Black Belt magazine. We also study with Dr. Gary Torres, the "#1" of legendary Grandmaster Peter Kwok and an incredible master in his own right. It is a good life.
