Today I tried Eight Pieces of Silk as a series of held postures, rather than as a collection of movements.  It worked pretty well.  I didn’t invest as much time in it as I did in Five Golden Coins late last week, after my visual cue. But I did try it at a much slower speed:

1. White Bird Spreads Wings (1 minute)
2. Right Bend the Bow to Shoot the Hawk (1 minute)
3. Left Bend the Bow to Shoot the Hawk (1 minute)
4. Right Join Heaven and Earth (1 minute)
5. Left Join Heaven and Earth (1 minute)
6. Right Neck Twist (1 minute)
7. Left Neck Twist (1 minute)
8. Right Low Punch (1 minute)
9. Left Low Punch (1 minute)
10. Touch Toes (1 minute)
11. Bend knees, waggle tail (1 minute)

So this only took eleven (maybe 12) minutes, as opposed to 23.  And it’s right before the form, which is even better.  I was able to go into the tai chi form with a much-slowed-down sensibility about what I was trying to achieve.  And that was great.  I’ll definitely be doing this experiment again.

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