I think we’ve just done movement 68 “Tornado”, which is further through the names of the movements than I expected — I thought we were probably only about half way through.
That’s a long way, reinforced by the lengths of the parts Sigong broke the form into this time — apart from part 2, they were all really quite big chunks! People seem to know the first two parts pretty well now (up to just before hurricane) but there was a lot to talk about in the breakout rooms when we got further than that.
So, with seminar 35 completing our seventh block of five-seminar chunks, it definitely felt right to use this seminar to take stock of where we’re up to in the form. We’re also currently as far as I learned through the form in person before COVID, but the dancing with the tassel and then using fan-liao to turn around to point was never very clear in my mind!
I always pick up something new when we’re polishing, but I can never predict in what way the realisation will come. Sometimes it will be from watching Sigong, other times it may be from doing the form myself and working something out. I may watch someone else and understand something by comparing what they do with what I am doing, and of course sometimes a senior will look at your movement and just be able to tell you something you are doing wrong. Fortunately we get plenty of opportunities in the seminars for all of these realisations to have their moments.
Having these opportunities to work things out is essential, because for me a key characteristic of both the Green Dragon and the White Crane forms is that the movements are never what I expect. The basic tassel warm up movements are certainly there in the forms, but what variety! Coming back to fan-liao for example, we only do one vertical circle fan-liao in the warm ups — but in White Crane, I can off the top of my head think of 8 different ways we have used the fan-liao energy so far, and I have probably missed some! The vertical circle from the warm ups is there, then we do it jumping, but then we learn to use the unwinding flick at the end of the fan-liao to start off the next movement with the tassel, instead of just letting the tassel wrap around and stop. We do it in horizontal circles over the head, we do half-circles with the sword instead of full circles, and we even use the unwind at the end to change the plane of the tassel, from circling vertically to circling horizontally.
Another thing which I really noticed this time was the speed of the form. Following along the longer sections at Sigong’s pace is challenging to do — and even more impressively Sigong is talking the entire time as well, calling out directions to us as we follow him! If you can keep up then your physical condition and your skill with the tassel really cannot be too bad.
With quite a lot of people now learning Green Dragon in Sigong’s class, I have been reminiscing a little back to when I learned that form. At first I found the movements all so challenging, and the tassel so impossible to control without using really excessive force. I used so much force I actually caused the knots in my first tassel to widen and pull off from the wooden piece that gives it its shape! Comparing it to the White Crane though, the leap in skill and the amount of extra mastery of the tassel required is huge. I cannot imagine what the rest of the form holds, let alone what challenges are to come way down the road in the Dragon and Phoenix sword form!
Thank-you so much Sigong for passing on these absolute gems which teach us so much about patience, control, practice and discipline.
by Lee Baylis
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