Chen Tai ChiRooted in structure.
Developed through practice.
Learn to move with balance, control, and purpose. Explore a martial art that connects careful solo practice with partner work and practical application.
Try Your First Class FreeBeginners welcome. Depth for a lifetime of practice. Your first class is free, with no obligation.
A connected body.
A purposeful practice.
Structure is how you organize your body to support movement. Balance is how you maintain that support as your weight shifts. Chen Tai Chi brings these skills together through four connected areas of practice.
Build awareness and alignment
Standing practice, breathing, and simple spiraling movements help you notice tension and establish the body’s connections.
Move as a whole
Practice a sequence of movements with controlled weight transfer, coordinated turning, and changes of pace. Learn to connect your feet, legs, torso, and arms.
Learn through contact
Partner practice adds feedback. Explore how to keep your structure and balance while responding to another person’s movement and pressure.
Understand the movement
Study how Tai Chi’s body mechanics and timing work in practical interaction. Application connects the movements you practice with their martial purpose.
A foundation to keep building on.
Begin with the basics. Return to them with greater understanding as your practice develops.
Establish the foundations
Learn the form, stances, structure, song, and rooting. These give your practice its foundation.
Song means releasing unnecessary tension while maintaining structure.
Understand energy
Deepen your understanding of energy as you continue working with the movements and principles of Tai Chi.
Apply the principles
Explore the principles through Tai Chi push hands and martial applications, bringing that understanding back into the form.
Your instructor guides progression and explains when to introduce partner work and applications.
Start with the movement
in front of you.
Your first class introduces the fundamentals with an instructor’s guidance. You can arrive with no martial arts experience.
- Settle into practiceBegin with breathing and focus, then ease into movement.
- Learn the foundationsExplore basic stances and slow, guided movements with attention to posture and balance.
- Ask, practice, discoverWork at your own pace, ask questions, and get a feel for the art. You’re not expected to remember everything.
Experienced teachers.
Deeper practice.
Our instructors help you explore what makes Tai Chi work: structure, balance, connected movement, and the principles behind the form. Their guidance connects what you practice on your own with what you discover through push hands and martial applications.
Shi Bo Chris Workman
- 35+ years
- Master Workman’s teaching experience
- 18 years
- Our instructors’ average training with Master Workman
Our instructors continue studying with Master Workman and must recertify at their current rank or advance every two years. That ongoing practice informs the corrections and explanations they bring to your training.
Practice with guidance.
“I'm taking the Tai Chi class; he makes it informative and fun with very practical applications.”
Tammee Turcott · Tai Chi student
Google review, April 19, 2022 · Excerpt about Master Workman
View Google reviews →
From form to interaction.
Why the martial meaning matters
Watch for the relationship between stance, turning, and the hands. In partner work, that relationship becomes something you can feel and test.
Tai Chi developed as a martial art, shaped by fighting methods and traditional Chinese ideas about preserving health. Its martial aspects explain the structure, direction, weight transfer, and response to another person’s force within a movement. Those details give the movement its purpose, even when you practice slowly on your own.
Softness and firmness belong together
In Master Workman’s teaching, correct understanding of the movements is essential to the energetic benefits sought in the practice. Tai Chi brings softness and firmness, yielding and expression, into relationship. It is not a practice of being soft all the time.
Within the traditional Chinese philosophy of energy, an excess of Yin without sufficient Yang is regarded as an unhealthy imbalance. From that perspective, practicing only softness misses the balance the art is intended to develop. Studying the martial meaning helps preserve both sides of the movement, rather than reducing Tai Chi to its gentle outward appearance.
A few useful answers.
Come with curiosity. You’ll build understanding through practice and instruction.
Can I start without martial arts experience?
Yes. Your instructor introduces the movements and guides you at your own pace. Your first class is a chance to explore the basics and ask questions.
What makes this a physical practice?
You work on maintaining structure while shifting weight, turning, and coordinating your body. Controlled movement asks for attention and effort, even when the pace is slow.
Is Chen Tai Chi a martial art?
Yes. Alignment, coordinated movement, and timing underpin its martial applications. Partner work explores how those principles function when another person’s movement and pressure are involved.
When will I begin partner work?
Your instructor can explain the appropriate starting point and how push hands and applications fit into your training.
What should I wear and bring?
Wear comfortable clothes that let you move and bring water. We’ll help you with the details for your first visit.
How do I arrange a first class?
Choose Try Your First Class Free and select your interest in the existing inquiry form. We’ll help you find the right starting point at our Peoria school.
Try Your First Class FreeTai Chi class times
Tai Chi classes at our Peoria school.
- Monday7:30–8:15 PM
Intermediate
- Tuesday6:00–6:45 PM
Beginning
Available for first class
- Wednesday7:30–8:15 PM
Intermediate
- Thursday6:00–6:45 PM
Beginning
Available for first class
- Saturday7:30–8:15 AM
All Levels
Your first class is free. Book with our team before attending—we reserve up to two places per class for first-time students and will confirm your booking.
All times local to Peoria, Arizona · America/Phoenix.
View full schedule →Your practice starts here.
Your first class is free, with no obligation. Tell us which program interests you. We’ll follow up by phone, email, or text to help you find a starting point at our Peoria school. No previous martial arts experience is needed.
Try Your First Class FreeNo long-term contracts