(For questions about our course fees, registration, and payments, please see the Course Registration page, which has it’s own FAQ)
GETTING STARTED
WEEKLY CLASSES
What are you doing to make your studio safer during the pandemic?
What are you doing to protect my privacy and security on Zoom?
Is this the same as what I learned elsewhere in a class or on TV or a DVD?
Do you have books DVD's, or other learning tools to help me remember the movements?
HEALTH AND HEALING
OUR ARTS
OUR TEACHERS
GETTING STARTED
1. How do I get started?
We are not currently offering any introductory courses. We are now focused on taking our existing students deeper into the arts we teach.
If you are interested in learning qigong or tai chi with us, here are some options:
One option is to take Bill Ryan's online learn-at-your-own-pace course in Dragon & Tiger Qigong. This course is pre-recorded so you can do the lessons at any time that is convenient for you.
If you are interested in live instruction (either in-person or online), you may contact us about private lessons.
If you already know some of the qigong and tai chi that we teach, you may meet the prerequisites for some of our weekly group courses. If you are not sure which class is right for you, please contact us to discuss.
WEEKLY CLASSES
1. When can I start?
You can start our Dragon & Tiger Qigong learn-at-your-own-pace-course or contact us about private lessons any time of year.
If you meet the prerequisites, you can join a course during the first two weeks of each of our sessions. We offer six sessions a year, starting about every eight weeks:
Winter - January through February
Early Spring - March through April
Late Spring - Late April through Early June
Summer - Late June through Mid-August
Early Fall - September through October
Late Fall - November through December
We generally announce the exact dates of the upcoming session about a month before it begins. To receive email announcements about our weekly classes, please join our email list.
2. Can I drop in and pay by the class?
You may be able to attend Refinements courses on a drop-in basis if you have the prerequisite experience. Please contact us to obtain permission of the instructor.
3. When are the classes?
Please view our weekly schedules for the days and times of current and upcoming courses.
4. What are you doing to make your in person classes safer during the COVID-19 pandemic?
To read about our current COVID protocol, please click here.
5. How should I prepare for an online class?
We teach some of our classes live through Zoom, an application which you can easily download for free on any device.
You can download the app whenever you like. Computer users want to download the Zoom Client for Meetings, and others want one of the Zoom mobile apps. You can do a test meeting to familiarize yourself with how it works, and to see how you will appear to others when you are in class.
Before your course begins, we will email you a Meeting ID number and a password. You will need both of these numbers to sign in to your class each week, so make sure you have them at hand.
We advise you to use a laptop computer - or a desktop computer with a tiltable web camera - for these online classes. By tilting the screen or web camera, you can easily position the camera so that we can see your whole body.
A phone screen may be too small to see us on. A tablet or desktop may be difficult to position easily. But use whatever device works best for you, of course. If you want to just listen in from your phone without video, you can.
To prepare for class you will need to find a place where:
you can set up your device with enough space to do your practice.
you can be far enough from the device so that your whole body fits in the screen. You'll probably need to be about ten feet from your device.
you have a light which illuminates your face and body so others can see you easily.
you have a chair in which you can sit about 4 feet away from your device. This will allow you to participate in group discussions or other activities where we want to see each other better.
Alternatively, if you want to participate in the classes without being on camera, you can turn off your video when you join the class. There is also an option not to connect your audio.
6. What are you doing to safeguard my privacy and security on Zoom?
We have taken the following measures to protect your privacy by using the security features offered by Zoom:
We do not allow screen sharing
We have limited the chat feature
Our Zoom classes are password protected
7. What do I wear?
Please wear loose-fitting clothes that do not restrict your movement.
You may take class in your bare feet or socks or shoes, as you prefer.
8. Do I need special clothing or equipment?
No. This is a great thing about qigong and tai chi - all you need in order to do it is a little room to move around.
It is a good idea to wear comfortable clothing when you practice, so that you will be comfortable. But you don’t need any special clothing.
9. Will I be able to do it?
Qigong exercises can be modified to accommodate people of all ages, abilities, body types, and energy levels. They can be done sitting or lying down.
Tai chi and qigong are regularly practiced by older people to maintain or regain mobility, energy, and health. They are used by people with illness and injury to regain health and range of motion, and to improve quality of life.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss your specific concerns.
10. Is this the same as what I learned elsewhere in a class or on TV or a DVD?
Unless you learned from an instructor who was trained by our teacher, Bruce Frantzis, or from one of his books, online courses, or videos, then it is unlikely that what we teach is the same as what you learned elsewhere. This does not mean that tai chi or qigong that you have learned elsewhere is completely different, but it may be.
There are many styles and schools of tai chi, and even more different types of qigong.
11. Do you have books, DVD's, or other learning tools to help me remember the movements?
We sell practice DVD’s for you to follow along with at home. These DVD’s are not intended as a substitute for a live teacher, they are just to help you with your practice. Please contact us to purchase a DVD.
Our teacher, Bruce Frantzis, has published instructional books about Dragon & Tiger Qigong, which contain illustrations of the movements. We do not sell his books, but they are available through his website www.energyarts.com. He has published several non-instructional books about tai chi that you may be interested to read, but he has not published an instructional tai chi book.
Bill Ryan has created an learn-at-your-own-pace-course in Dragon & Tiger qigong, which is available through our teacher Bruce Frantzis’ website, www.energyarts.com.
1. What health conditions can qigong and tai chi help with?
These arts have the potential to balance and revitalize you on many levels - physical, energetic, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Our exercises strengthen and balance your chi (qi) or life energy, which in turn tunes every system of your body from your joints, organs, and spine to your nerves, muscles, and immune system.
Over the years, our students have found our practices helpful for:
Lower back pain
Joint pain (e.g arthritis)
Neck & shoulder tension
Repetitive stress injuries
Digestive issues
Anxiety & depression
Asthma
Cancer
And many other conditions
2. I have a particular illness or condition. Will this help?
1. What is qigong?
Qigong (also spelled chi gung) is the art of developing the life energy of your body, which the Chinese call chi (pronounced "chee", sometimes spelled "qi").
It is thought that qigong originally was developed in ancient China. People sought to increase their vitality on all levels and studied the natural world in an effort to learn how to do so.
Chinese medicine teaches that if your chi is full, freely flowing, and balanced, good health will follow. Qigong exercises help to increase and balance the flow of chi through your system.
Over the years, qigong methods have been practiced and developed by people in all walks of life, for purposes including spiritual practice, health and healing, martial arts, athletic performance, and mental acuity.
Today there are thousands of different types of qigong. Some qigong systems, like the ones we teach, have been preserved and refined over thousands of years. New systems are constantly being developed and introduced.
2. What is tai chi?
Tai Chi was originally developed as a martial art rooted in qigong. Tai Chi’s basic practice consists of a gentle flowing progression of movements known as a form. Today, most people who practice tai chi use it as a health exercise, by practicing the form without the martial arts training.
You can think of a tai chi form as a very sophisticated qigong exercise. It is less repetitive and requires you to learn more movements than the qigong forms we teach. However, it incorporates the same movement principles and energy development techniques, and confers similar benefits.
3. Are Tai Chi and Qigong religious practices?
While the practices we teach originate from Taoism, people from all walks of life participate in and enjoy our classes. Everyone is welcome.
OUR TEACHERS
1. What are your credentials?
Our founding teachers, Bill and Kathryn, are students of Bruce Frantzis, who is a Lineage Holder in the Taoist Water Tradition. Bruce is one of America's foremost experts in Chinese energy arts for health, healing, and martial arts.
Bill and Kathryn are longtime students of Bruce Frantzis and have received certification from him to teach these arts. Between them, Bill and Kathryn have over 50 years of teaching experience and have taught thousands of students.
Before opening Toward Harmony, Bill founded and ran Brookline Tai Chi near Boston, which at one point was one of the largest tai chi schools in the country, with a peak enrollment of over 450 students.
Dan Winter has trained with Bill and Kathryn for 13 years, and has attended intensive trainings with Bruce Frantzis.
2. How is your approach different than other schools that teach tai chi and qigong?
Following the model of our teacher, Bruce Frantzis, we first provide students with a thorough grounding in the foundational postural and movement principles of tai chi and qigong. Our attention to detail in teaching the physical mechanics of our arts prepares our students for success and helps to prevent injuries.
We then begin to teach the chi or energetic aspects of the arts. The majority of the health benefits one can gain from practice of these arts comes from the internal energy content which is layered inside of the external physical forms.
Because this content has traditionally only been taught to high level disciples, few people truly know it, and fewer still are willing and able to teach it. Bruce Frantzis is one of these people, and he has passed much of it onto us.
We are fortunate to have this deep knowledge of internal components of the arts, and a cohesive system for imparting it to our students. From early on in your training we will begin to teach you the internal energy principles that make tai chi and qigong work.
Bruce trained in the Taoist Water Tradition, and our teaching of qigong and tai chi is informed by that tradition. The water tradition emphasizes relaxation and letting go, working with gravity, and wearing away at obstacles slowly over time.
