My friend and colleague Dennis Beck asked me a while back to take a look at his DVD of basic Tai Chi exercises. After the obligatory warnings that I would mercilessly savage the thing if it ended up looking like so many other Tai Chi and martial arts DVD's out there (They look like they were filmed in some ramshackle garage or an empty storefront) he still wanted me to review it so here it is.
Technically the DVD is beautifully produced, the camera work is great and the sound is superb.
There are two sections, one on the Eight Pieces of Brocade. This version is a simplified routine that lacks the deep horse stance work you see in other performances and as such is perfect for anyone of any fitness level. The real gem here however is that Mr. Beck actually includes a very important and often left out point on the postures in Eight Pieces of Brocade. He talks about the mind and energy aspect and acknowledges that without this information you are simply waving your arms.
The second section consists of useful acupuncture points that you can use to relieve some common ailments like jet lag, headaches, etc. The only flaw with this section lies not in the information but with the almost comical inattention of the video editor where the menu option reads "Self Touch with Dennis Beck." That little quibble aside there is a lot of good information here for both the beginner and the intermediate student.
The energy work for the Eight Pieces is worth ten times the cost of the DVD and we must be thankful to Mr. Beck for sharing it so freely.
I suppose my only other problem with this DVD is that it's too short. Mr. Beck promises he will remedy that with some more DVD's in this series highlighting various Yang Old Style forms and applications. You can buy the DVD and learn more about Dennis Beck and his classes by visiting his website at www.taijichuan.com.
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