What's in Your Mind When You Perform a Taiji Routine?

I asked this question to my Teacher, Mr. Chen, Sitan last weekend. He replied:

"I always want to present Taiji as an art blended in with Chinese martial arts, culture and my personal understanding of Taiji. When I perform, I completely immerse myself into the routine using Yi (intend) to lead the movements. The movements are through my body but the presentation is from my heart. I present the entire routine as a whole."

He also said his performance was different now in comparison to that years ago when he was an athlete and competed for gold medals. He has a deeper understanding of Taiji now which reflects in all the movements. He is also more relaxed. In the past, his goal was to compete and win goal medals. Now, he has more time to feel the deeper meanning of Taiji.

Mr. Chen has received 32 medals in various competitions during his professional career. Whenever I was watching his live performance, either for a class demo or for an event, I was always amazed how graceful, light and powerful it was.

In the past three years, I have been impressed by Mr. Chen's patience and the willingness to give all out to the students who want to learn from him. His pleasant personality always makes me think whether it was innate or from Taiji training.

Here is an interesting article about his life in US published on worldjournal.com(in Chinese):
陳思坦來美發揚中國武術
太極拳世界冠軍傳藝授徒 著作出書 澄清人們對福州人成見

Mr. Chen's web site is under revision. In the meantime, you can learn more about him from his recent presence in San Diego for teaching and demonstration.
http://www.sdtaichi.com/chensitanseminar.html

Now, my question is: What's in your mind when you perform a Taiji routine? I will share my experience in a future blog.