Master - San Gee Tam
The Golden Flower Tai Chi Association was started in 1985 by San Gee Tam, James Holland. At the time he was Chief Instructor at Large in the International Tai Chi Chuan Association of Master Chu, King Hung official certified representation of the Yang family. San Gee Tam was also Chief instructor of the Golden Flower Tai Chi Association in Belgium, having established the ITCCA in Brussels and popularizing Tai Chi in Belgium.
His integral 'Golden Flower' method, including Tai Chi and self-cultivation, is a unique system, comprehensive for Westerners and accessible for anyone with an open mind. Education and ongoing training of Golden Flower Tai Chi Instructors is his highest prority, because it is his intention to make the unique benefits of the Golden Flower teachings available to anyone. Learning Tai Chi is a process of personal evolution for instructors as well as for the students.
San Gee Tam has also studied extensively with Dong Zeng Chen, 3rd generation Yang Style master and Grandson of the famous Tung Ying Jie.
Beginning in 1982, San Gee Tam established classes in England and continental Europe. This earlier work included both Tai Chi and personal development work that is now called Creative Interactions. The original idea was that a Tai Chi teacher must know and be much more than simply a movement teacher. True internal development affects the practitioner on all levels and the process can only be facilitated by someone with experience. Within a few years, a few individuals began to teach and create their own 'families'. Appropriately, San Gee Tam developed more comprehensive training for teachers. Today we have a number of instructors in Europe, the United States and Russia. We have an excellent group of people as the foundation of an outstanding international organization devoted to teaching and communicating wellbeing. In each country, people are developing classes and working together with a chief instructor and National Coordinator. San Gee Tam is focusing on the refinement of the association and on mastering new educational and communication media.
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Senior instructor - Annukka Holland
I was born in Finland in 1968. My training at college in Finland was in landscape gardening and design. After graduating, I ended up in England in 1989 intending to develop my gardening skills and improve my English, but, after just two weeks, I met San Gee Tam and my life has never been the same since!
From then until now I've intensively studied Tai Chi and trained myself to assist people's Well Being and physical health. One of the most memorable times for me was visiting Siberia in 1992. San Gee was invited to come to Siberia and share Tai Chi and the other spiritual work he had developed. A group of 25 of us went and had an extraordinary 2 weeks where every single one of us experienced the deep love and generosity of the human Spirit as expressed by our new Siberian friends. To be in a country apparently so impoverished, but yet so alive and vital was a true revelation to us all!
I was called upon to demonstrate Tai Chi by standing in a foundational Tai Chi stance and letting the top All-Siberian Karate Champion try and push my delicate, feminine frame. To my and every one else's astonishment, he could not push me!!! In that moment I realised the power in Tai Chi, and how much I must have developed without even knowing it! That time was remarkable for us all. Suddenly our family had expanded to include several hundred Siberians - we had truly become a global family.
In 1994 San Gee and I moved to America and got married. Together with new friends here, we founded the American part of the Golden Flower School. I was proud and honoured to become one of the first Golden Flower Instructors along with Maria Van Orshoven in 1995.
Nowadays, I help San Gee Tam create and run his classes and workshops and regularly practice all of the school's syllabus: Golden Flower Form, Traditional Long Form, Small Circle, Pushing Hands, Standing Chi Kung, Hsing-I and Pa Kua. I'm also a mentor in Master Ni's organization, the USIW, and am dedicated to promoting his work. I have a perfect job where I can exercise my love of flowers and gardening, and whenever I have time to play, you'll find me riding my mountin bike or wind-surfing.
My dream for the near future is to have people from all over the World come together and enjoy a yearly retreat in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. I'm also working to help the school to share its gifts generously, especially here in my new homeland of America, and in my motherland, Finland.
Lots of Love to you all, Annukka.
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Instructor - Julie Renolds
Instructor - Pete Sangimino
Peter has been studying tai chi since 1997. As an artist, graphic designer, web developer, and musician, Peter has a strong appreciation for tai chi as an art as well as for exercise and energy balance. He continues his tai chi development through advanced trainings at least once a month, and he teaches classes in both Greensboro and Charlotte, NC.
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Advanced - Amy Becton
During the summer of 1987, I decided to stay at school to work as a lab technician in the biology department at Florida State University. That particular summer the college was offering several short continuing education classes and I attended Tai Chi for the first time! I remember leaving my first class feeling profoundly better than when I showed up and so, I decided to experiment with a second class. Each class proved to be such a positive and rewarding experience that I continued with my teacher, Sean Dennison at the Daoist Tai Chi School in Tallahassee, Florida until I graduated in 1990.
Shortly after graduation, I moved to the Lake Norman area in North Carolina to take a job at Davidson College. I continued my tai chi training with Grandmaster Joe Martin at the Silver Dragon Kung Fu Academy, where I also studied Esoma Kung Fu and Taoist Chi Gong practices. In 1999, I began teaching Esoma Kung Fu and Tai Chi at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. It soon became clear that, along with science, teaching Tai Chi is one of my passions. Over the years, I have accumulated so much benefit from applying Tai Chi principles to my life and teaching classes provides a way to give all that gratitude back.
Searching for more instruction, in 2005 I stumbled onto the Golden Flower Tai Chi School web site. Master San Gee Tam had several essays posted at the site describing his teaching philosophy and advanced training curriculum. It was just what I had been looking for! When I walked into the Golden Flower Tai Chi Center in Winston Salem, I then realized that I had discovered something really special. For me, the fulfillment deeply lies in participating in the Golden Flower Family vision, within which can be found healthy goals, people that emanate a high level of cooperation and a powerful support system. Master San Gee Tam’s invaluable teachings have improved my teaching skills, my level of health, mindfulness and success at self management.
Appreciating Master San Gee Tam’s non-traditional teaching style, I also aspire to encourage my students to direct their own personal growth, ask questions, experiment with class curriculum and support each other. My classes focus on providing a safe space that is rich in substance, yet also fun and exciting where students can make life-changing discoveries.
Tai Chi Classes held at Central Piedmont Community College, Main Campus Charlotte, NC on Monday and Wednesday nights. For more information contact the Corporate and Continuing Education Program at (704)330-4223
