Sun style. She also teaches the full 73-movement Sun style to her advanced classes. Wilson astutely facilitates learning by taking movements apart, so that students spend time mastering a particular challenge — the footwork in one form, the wrist and palm motion in another. As Wilson explains, “It’s like learning a language and over time you become conversant with that language.” Eventually, participants put all the parts together in a longer reverie of movement. “Every time we do something,“ Wilson remarks, “we lay down layers like silt in a river.” Wilson is a serious writer of poetry and participates in the Syracuse Downtown Writers’ Center select workshop limited to experienced poets preparing works for publication. So it is no surprise that she brings her poetic sensibilities to tai chi, relating the movements of the body to the language of poetry as well as an attunement to nature. “Doing tai chi is like being part of nature,” she says. “Like the ripple on water or the movement of leaves and grasses.” At the end of each class, she quietly narrates her cool-downs by asking participants to relax like a tall blade of grass swaying in the breeze or to stretch “like the biggest starfish.” Donna D’Eredita, who has been in the class for three years, says that such connections help her to internalize the movements of tai chi. “What I love the most,” she says, “is how she can put some kind of fluid visualization in her descriptions. I’m very visual, so it helps me.” While the movements of tai chi are indeed graceful and fluid, they are also precise, so Wilson adds a dose of the practical to the precision. For instance, she will ask people to think about how one position’s curve of the arm and slight bending of the elbow should feel like tenderly holding a baby. Or she will describe a motion where palms are flattened, one on top of the other, and then twisted slowly to reverse them: “You have flattened pie dough in your hands and you’re flipping it around.” By bringing precision and practice down to earth, Wilson can conversely take her students to a higher level. “Movement is both powerful and sacred,” she reflects. “There’s an April / May 2020 - 55 PLUS
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