By Graham Barlow (click here to read the write-up from Marnix Wells, commisioned by the TCUGB)
Postitioned right outside Highgate tube station, Jackson’s Lane Theatre
is a lovely converted Victorian redbrick church with a plush interior and a
relaxed, ‘arty’ atmosphere. It was also the location of the 2003
Yongquan Tai Chi Chuan Demonstration of Chinese Martial Arts, which we performed
on the Sunday the 29th of June at 2.00pm.
Being amongst the first people to arrive that day we had the pleasure of greeting every member of the display team as they turned up, until we had the full compliment including Sifus Kerr and Robertson. Before the performance we had plenty of time for a few run-throughs of our various sections so we could give Steve Maddocks and Ken Rea (the technicians in the sound box) time to work out their queues for the music and lighting arrangements. Little did I know, but Steve had been up till 5 in the morning composing and putting the final touches to the stirring jungle rhythms that would later accompany my broadsword form. Thanks Steve!
By the time an exceptionally smart looking Sifu Rand (wearing a red tie - the Chinese colour for good luck) had arrived to wish us all the best we were all set to go. The show had sold out the day before, so we knew there were going to be over 160 people taking their seats as we waited backstage (apologies to the 50+ people who didn't get in on the day, next time we'll hire a bigger hall).
Sifu Kerr, who had done most of the work promoting and organising this demonstration, gave us all one last rousing pep talk and we took our positions. Now all the hard work had been done, we just had to get on and do it!
As
the narrative started and the video slideshow introduction started everyone
was primed and ready. Being back stage there’s was no way to gauge the
audiences reaction to our performance so we were all quite relieved once we
heard the rapturous applause that greeted the end of Tina Andersen’s performance
of the Choy Lee Fut form. One by one we all came out to do our set pieces. My
broadsword form was next. With the added effect of the music I felt like I flew
thought my form. In fact I can’t remember a single thing about it! While
perhaps not culturally accurate (!) the African rhythms provided an excellent
accompaniment to the rolls, slashes and swipes of the blade contained within
the form.
The broadsword form was followed by a brief comic interlude where Tina Andersen downed three would-be attackers using Choy Lee Fut techniques before her boyfriend (Daniele Bucherri) arrived having missed all the action only to take all the credit for her victory himself. Typical man!
The theme of the demonstration was to move from the hard external styles, enjoyed by the young and fit, towards the more subtle internal systems. Next we had Daniele again, and Matthew Calvert doing the energetic Northern Shaolin two-man form, enhanced by stirring music that built to a crescendo to accompany their accomplished display of fighting techniques, flips and tumbles. Keeping with the Northern Shaolin theme the next form displayed, again by Tina, was the NSL Dragon sword form. Complimented by an intoxicating middle-Eastern soundtrack Tina’s sword work captured the light and agile spirit of the Chinese straight sword perfectly.
Next up was a demonstration of Sai, a weapon not normally associated with Chinese arts, but never the less of Chinese origin. Matthew demonstrated the Sai using the movements of the Choy Lee Fut form to show how weapons can be adapted to an existing form. With the characteristic long range swinging arm movements of Choy Lee Fut Matthew showed the full range of possibilities the weapon offered.
The final part of our demonstration of the external systems was a set of Chin Na tecniques, which I performed with the help of my students Adam Hughes and Steve Alston. These sets concentrated on locking and throwing techniques. Each one having one person defending against the other two, often using locking techniques that tied both the attackers arms up together before they were thrown to the floor. The accompanying bangs and crashes as the bodies hit the floor produced quite a few gasps from the audience, much to our satisfaction I have to add!
Now
it was time to slow things down with the apparently more serene practice of
Tai Chi Chuan. First of all Sifu Kerr demonstrated the short health form he
had derived from the Old Yang form, and which we have called the Yongquan form,
accompanied by Daniel Ball and Brian Timms. Next Sifu Robertson lead a small
team of performers in the Lam short form followed by a short demonstration of
the martial aspects of Tai Chi Chuan with a number of push hands practitioners
on stage demonstrating various techniques taken from the Tai Chi Chuan forms.
The change of pace from external to internal was noticeable, but the martial applications demonstrated that Tai Chi Chuan can be a potent form of self defence when trained in this way. A short interval followed, after which we were ready for the demonstrations of internal power that we had all been practising intensely for during the previous months.
First of all Sifu Robertson demonstrated Fa Jin with the Press technique taken from Tai Chi Chuan. A line of volunteers from the audience was assembled and Sifu Robertson knocked them all back with a single relaxed application of Press. The keen observer would have noticed that the person on the end of the line flew back first, and the rest concertinad backwards from there, showing how the internal power had travelled through the entire line of people. The person at the front was the very last to be uprooted.
Next it was my turn again, along with Daniele, as we prepared to break a 1/2 inch thick roof tile each in mid air. The tile is held by the finger tips of one hand while the other hand strikes it in the centre, attempting to break it cleanly in half. Both the breaks went on the first attempt, with neither of us using any obvious effort to break our tiles. It’s amazing how a technique that can take a good couple of month’s to perfect can be over in just a few short seconds!
The
next demonstration of Iron Shirt called for the combined skills of Sifus Kerr
and Robertson. First of all Sifu Robertson lay on the stage and had three paving
slabs placed on his chest. Next Sifu Kerr lay on top of those and had a further
three paving slabs placed on his chest. At this point the combined weight on
Sifu Robertson was in excess of a third of a ton! With one swing of the sledgehammer
Matthew broke the first three slabs on Sifu Kerr’s chest, after the debris
had been removed Sifu Kerr stood up, took the sledgehammer and broke the remaining
slabs on Sifu Robertson’s chest. Both Sifus Kerr and Robertson sustained
minor abrasions on their hands and arms from flying masonry when the slabs broke,
but both were otherwise unharmed and proudly saluted at the end.
Next
it was time for yet another Fa Jin demonstration, this time with Shock energy
as Robert Gillen and Nial Sawa broke the bottom out of two beer bottles using
single relaxed palm strikes to the tops of each bottle. This one is always a
crowd pleaser, and it was performed superbly with both bottles breaking first
time to rapturous applause from the audience. Beforehand the beer bottles were
opened on stage and the beer served and offered to the audience (no sense in
wasting good beer!) and refilled with water before having their tops replaced
(to prove that air pressure isn’t the explanation for the break). The
keen observer would have noticed that only the bottom of the bottles was blown
out – the rest of the bottles remained unbroken, indicating the use of
internal power.
It was now time for Sifu Kerr to demonstrate some more of his skill, specifically Iron Arm Kung. Placing his arm on top of three stacked bricks on the floor he had a further three bricks placed over his arm, which he steadied with his other hand. Once he had indicated he was ready Daniele took the sledgehammer and struck the bricks with all his might. All three of the bricks on the top of Sifu Kerr’s arm literally exploded as they were struck by the sledgehammer and he sprang to his feet so quickly that we all thought he’d been hurt, but in fact he was just jumping up to salute, impervious to any harm.
Matthew was next with his demonstration of breaking a 3-inch thick concrete block from fingertip distance. As he prepared for the break he did three large warm-up strikes in big slow circles down towards the block. The audience were all convinced that he was going to repeat one of these large circles when he performed the break, instead however he simply used only a strike from fingertip distance and the block broke with a resounding thud. It was a superbly performed demonstration.
For
the penultimate demonstration Sifu Kerr was going to break a granite pebble
using Iron Palm. A lot of the people in the Display Team had never even seen
this done before so the feeling of anticipation from the audience was matched
by those watching from the wings! True to form Sifu Kerr broke the pebble with
one clean strike of his palm and the audience responded showing their appreciation
of this high-level skill. For the final demonstration Sifu Robertson took to
the stage in a kneeling position as a kerb stone weighing 180 pounds was placed
on his head by Daniele and Rob. It was so heavy it took two people to lift it!
Sifu Kerr took the sledgehammer and hit the kerbstone as hard as he could, smashing
it in half with the first blow. Once the two halves had fallen to the ground
Sifu Robertson stood and saluted demonstrating that he remained completely unharmed
by this potentially fatal activity!
In
all the demonstration had been a complete success and judging by the amount
of applause the audience seemed to be more than pleased. The granite pebble
broken by Sifu Kerr was squirreled away by an audience member (presumably
a keen collector of such things) within the first few minutes, but we invited
the audience to inspect all the broken concrete and bottles for themselves and
answered any questions they might have.
Our thanks go to Sifu Kerr for all the countless hours of work he put into organising and training people for this demo and also to our Technical Director Sifu Raymond Rand without whom none of this would have been possible.
The only question now is when is the next demo and can we do it in a bigger venue?
(Please note: the demonstrations described here should only be attempted after years of training under the guidance of a qualified teacher. Do not attempt these demonstrations yourself).