Violet Anderson is head instructor and founding partner of the Black Bamboo Pavilion Taijiquan School in Feb 2016. She studied with LaoMa for 19 years and has been teaching for over 15 years as his ‘number one’ student. Violet now teaches all of the school’s forms, including the three open palm forms, Wudangshan Taijiquan, and Liuhebafaquan, as well as the many weapons forms and push hands. She also studies and teaches Chinese calligraphy. Her passion is two person work, playing push hands and deepening her understanding of the art form, both as a meditative art and a useful interactive art form. Violet has competed and medaled in many forms as well as push hands. 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.
Almanzo “Lao Ma” Lamoureux (May 18, 1941 - Sept 21st, 2020) founder of Black Bamboo Pavilion, with his taiji partner Violet Anderson. He is also a Senior Teacher Emeritus with the Magic Tortoise Taijiquan School (靈龜太極拳家) in the Triangle area of North Carolina. He has practiced Chinese arts for over four decades, and was the founder and chief instructor, from 1975, of the Tidewater Tai-Chi Club (and a co-founder of the Tidewater Tai-Chi Center) in Norfolk, Virginia. From Oct-Nov 1975, LaoMa made his first visit to China, traveling to various Minority Chinese Regions, and having the grand opportunity of playing taijiquan (太極拳) with groups of ordinary people from Beijing to Xian to Kunming, Xishuangbanna, Changsha and Shanghai. He received his M.A. in Asian Studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia in 1980. Living and working in Wuhan (武漢), Hubei Province (湖北), China from 1985 to 1988, he was the first and only foreign student at 91 year old Grandmaster Ding, Hong Kuai's (丁鴻奎) Wuchang Snake Hill Pavilion School (Shéshān 蛇山). Under Ding "YeYe's" tutelage, LaoMa placed first in weapons competition in Hankou's Hubei Provincial Wushu Tournament in 1987 where he demonstrated guaigun (枴棍, hooked cane). In May of 1986 LaoMa made his first pilgrimage to Wudangshan (武當山) in western Hubei Province, the sacred Daoist Mountains of taijiquan's origin. He has returned to China often, studying with many teachers and visiting sacred sites. LaoMa has served as form and push-hands judge in numerous tournaments sponsored by the U.S. Wushu-Kung Fu Federation, and as chief judge in the U.S.C.K.F.'s United States International Kuoshu Championship Tournaments. Through the Magic Tortoise Taijiquan School, LaoMa has taught taijiquan and qigong (氣功) at Duke University's Center for Living and Duke Diet and Fitness Center. Since 1994 he has also been the principal internal martial arts instructor at the United Martial Arts Center, Raleigh NC, and the U.S. Tae Kwon Do Institute, Durham NC.
