Violet had studied and taught with LaoMa for 15 years when Black Bamboo was founded. Since LaoMa’s passing in September, 2020, Violet carries on his focus and dedication to the art form by teaching the forms he brought back from China. She continues to deepen her understanding of the art form, both as a meditative art and a useful interactive art form, through continued study and teaching.

Violet teaches all of the school’s forms, including the three open palm forms, Wudangshan Taijiquan, and Liuhebafaquan, as well as the many weapons forms, paired forms and push hands classes. She also studies and teaches Chinese calligraphy (Shufa).

She currently teaches some Black Bamboo classes out of her pavilion, The Laughing Mountain Taijiquan Pavilion, located in Durham, NC. Violet is available for private lessons upon request.

Garry Williams is an instructor with Black Bamboo Pavilion. He has been studying taijiquan for over 20 years, studying with LaoMa exclusively for the past 17 years. As a senior student, he has assisted with teaching for many years and now has classes of his own. He has learned several weapons forms and is an experienced push hands player. Garry teaches the Thursday morning class in Pittsboro.

Dorothy Wright has been attending Black Bamboo Taijiquan School since 2007 and an assistant instructor since 2014. Before discovering taiji, she did hard style karate (american and shitoryu). Dorothy enjoys the Wudangshan style of empty hand form as well as weapons (sword, dao, stick, fan, cane). She assists with Monday and Wednesday night classes and leads classes when needed.

Dan Pasek is our co-teacher for the push hands class. Dan has been practicing Taijiquan (太極拳) since 1979, starting with a Yang (楊) style variant. His teacher during the early 1980’s emphasized interactive work and taught classes, in part, to develop practice partners. He has followed his teacher’s example and emphasizes interactive work, with and without weapons, in his school (Entwined Dragons Taijiquan, in Pittsboro, NC). He later studied Chen (陳) style as well as some study of Wudangshan (武當山) and Sun (孫) styles. He has also had minor experiences with Xingyiquan (形意拳) and Baguazhang (八卦掌), as well as studying the art of ILiqChuan (意力拳) since 2004. He has served as a judge at Taijiquan competitions since 1998, after competing and medaling at tournaments earlier in the 1990’s. In addition to solo forms (without and with various weapons), he has also studied several paired forms, paired drills, cooperative or free play with various rules that emphasize differing skills, and free fighting with various rules and equipment requirements to maintain safety while training.