Dear Isabelle,

Re: Why are you wondering about learning 108?

1. I am a naturally curious chap
2. Also bit of an A-type personality: 24 good, 108 better ...
3. Sometimes 24 feels too short. When I finish, I think: "Is that all there is -- then let's keep dancing."
4. I saw a bit of Jesse's DVD on YouTube [I'll just have a small break here to watch Jesse in action. Let's face it, I've got all the time in the world.]

... to be continued ... [jb disappears into the distance whistling a happy tune] ...

_________________
jb

Re: Why are you wondering about learning 108?

[10 minutes later]

Ah that's better. I needed that.
I talked to my sifu Meilin about learning new forms. She said "John, you are so busy. So many books, so many classes ... perhaps you might follow the Tao ... perhaps you might practise just the Yang 24 for 5 years then you will be a 'Yang 24 Master' --- and then you can teach me."

_________________
jb

Dear Isabelle,

Re: Yang forms

I just came back from making some lentil soup. Garlic, extra virgin olive oil, red lentils, ginger, a spot of Encona West Indian hot pepper spicy sauce ... mmmm soup, lentil soooop ...

Looking in my taiji bible [Taijiquan (2004)], I see that Li Deyin covers 81, 24, 42, 42 sword & 32 sword. Of 81 Li Deyin says:

"Yang-style Taijiquan was created by Mr. Yang Luchan (1799-1872) of Yongnian County and refined by his son Yang Jianhou (1839-1917) and completed by his grandson Yang Chengfu (1883-1936) ...
At first, Yang Chengfu set the number of steps of Yang-style Taijiquan as 81, but in his later years he changed the number to 85 by repeating the movement 'brushing aside over the knee in reverse forward stance', dividing the 'turn around to tame the tiger left and right' into the left and right steps, and breaking 'single bian downward' into two movements, 'single bain' and 'push downward'. The rest of the movements remain unchanged. Yang-style has variations such as the forms with 88 steps, 107 steps and 115 steps."

_________________
jb