about Kinthissa

Kinthissa was born in Rangoon in 1952.  She studied Far Eastern art and philosophy at Vassar and London, where she encountered the Taiji which she had glimpsed, as a child, through the rising mists on her way to school.

In those early days of T'aichi in England, Gerda Geddes was constantly invited to give talks and demonstrations all over England.  As part of her fledgling training, Kinthissa was sent out to some of the further flung towns.  British Railways in the 1970s afforded much time to contemplate the mysteries of T'aichi Ch'uan.

She was then apprenticed for 10 years to Gerda Geddes, who, inspired in Shanghai in 1949 by the sight of an old man playing the Taiji along the Yangtze estuary, later studied with Choy HawkPang (student of Yang ChengFu), and pioneered the teaching of Taiji in England upon her return.

A film by Anna Furse ~ 1980
immersion in form

From 1977 to 1989, Kinthissa taught Yang Style 108 Form, mainly in London and Basel.  She learned from Tew Bunnag the 24 Form and practised his method of combining Taiji with samadhi bhavana during silent retreats.  Between 1982 and 1989, she worked with students at the London Contemporary Dance School to find ways for them to regenerate energy and maintain awareness during strenuous training.

After return from China, Kinthissa re-visits her old Yang long form which appears somewhat angularized by contact with "martial applications". Restless on the grassy slopes of Rogate, Sussex.

In China in 1985, Kinthissa learnt the 48 Form, Flying Crane Qigong and Sword Form in the Beijing snow.

Filmed in Kramhúsið Reykjavik ~1989, the flowing set of warming-up exercises which Kinthissa taught at that time, leading into the Beijing Short Form.
Filmed in Hereford sometime in the early '90s, Kinthissa's Yang long form has regained some equanimity. It now feels familiar again. This is almost the last recording of her doing Yang Style before meeting Chen XiaoWang.

From a Western perspective, the world of TaijiQuan changed in the 1980s with the opening up of mainland China. Two barely known themes, fundamental to the training, began to emerge: ZhanZhuang—the standing qigong, and Chansigong—the technique of twining silk.

In 1995, under the tutelage of Chen XiaoWang, Kinthissa began intensive practice of these traditional ways. The profundity of Master Chen's TaijiQuan and the clarity of his teaching have drawn to him serious practitioners of the art from all over the world. Under his guidance, Kinthissa holds classes in the fundamentals of TaijiQuan and form.