What’s New at the Studio

Greetings, everyone,

February is here—when the light hints at spring and the temperatures insist it’s still winter. The Romans gave us January 1 to toast the new year, and Janus, the two-faced god, reminds us to look both backward and forward as we ease into the year ahead. There is much on the horizon at the studio.

• Our Chinese New Year potluck is fast approaching. Signing up is easy—just click the red banner on our website or add your name to the sign-up sheet in the classroom.

• Our board chair, Stephen May, writes about a gentle tuition increase planned for the summer. Please take a moment to read his article, “A Healthy Studio,” for details.

• We also celebrate Todd Nesser and a milestone anniversary, honoring his many contributions to our studio’s design and visual identity.

• The online magazine Canvas Rebel has published an interview and personality profile on me. Check out my story—in words and pictures.

• Finally, this is the year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese lunar calendar. Read my piece, “Ride the Wild Fire Horse,” to explore its meaning. Will you ride?

—Paul

Come Celebrate With Us!

2026 Lunar New Year Potluck

Saturday, February 21 | 4:00–7:00 p.m.

Our annual Lunar New Year potluck is almost here! Join us for great food, good company, and a joyful evening of community. Bring a friend, meet new friends, and bring a dish to share as we celebrate together.

Sign up at tctaichi.org—just click the red banner at the top of the home page, and you’re there.

The evening will include videos of the old masters in our T’ai Chi lineage and a celebration of two special milestones: Paul Abdella’s 10th year as head of the studio and his 60 years of martial arts study.

Come welcome the New Year with friends old and new—we hope you can join us!

A Healthy Studio

“Undertake difficult tasks by approaching
what is easy in them.”
~ Tao Te Ching, chap. 63 (trans. Victor H. Mair)

In the past few years, there have been visible changes at the studio.

• After talking wishfully about it for nearly 30 years, we have finally installed acoustic panels to make the classroom less reverberant and more conducive to small-group instruction.

• We will soon be installing a new speaker system to make lessons even easier to hear.

• We have new computer technology to enable our new Zoom classes.

• The computer and printer in the office have been replaced so that we can now restock our various forms without having to visit the print shop and can keep databases that are more easily accessible.

• We have replaced the overhead lighting.

• We’ve added air filters, air conditioners, and supplemental heaters and installed new wiring where necessary to accommodate them.

• The social aspect of the studio is also important. Each summer, we rent a picnic spot and cater a meal. In the winter, we rent tables and chairs for a gathering and pot luck meal to celebrate the lunar new year.

• We have repainted the outside hallway, the community room, the office, and the changing rooms (and the board will be discussing the possibility of a future facelift for the main studio).

While a few of these items were graciously donated, many of them represent expenses outside of normal operations. Obviously, we rely on the donations to our annual fundraiser to make these other changes possible. But we also rely on the fundraiser to help cover our normal operating expenses. Membership fees pay roughly 58% of our expenses, and without the generous donations to the fundraiser, the picture (and the studio) would look rather different.

As our expenses rise, it would not be prudent to rely exclusively on the fundraiser. The board wishes to keep things more equitable, so that everyone shares in the ongoing support of the studio, and we always try to make this as gentle as possible.

Therefore, beginning in July, the studio membership price will increase—by $1 a week.

• New regular membership: $310/quarter

• New senior membership: $210/quarter

This represents a 4% increase from the current fees, which is not enough to cover inflation but is a way to soften some of the long-term bite and help keep the studio healthy. All other considerations (such as family or student rates) will still apply.

We are grateful for all of our members and appreciate your support and understanding. You make the studio what we are. And as always, if there is a hardship, talk to Sifu Paul to discuss options.

See you in class!

Partner Practices at Twin Cities T’ai Chi

Partner practices such as Pushing-Hands and the T’ai Chi Symmetries are an integral part of the Twin Cities T’ai Chi curriculum. These two-person exercises develop awareness, tactile sensitivity, and an applied understanding of the principles and applications within the Solo Form.

Partner-practice classes only open to new students at specific intervals. Interested students should contact Sifu Paul, Kim Husband, or Stephen May to be placed on the waiting list for the next session.

Prerequisites: Current membership with regular class attendance, completion of the Solo Form, and at least six months of consistent Solo Form practice after completion of the form sequence.

Symmetries Open Practice

On the first Tuesday of each month, the studio’s main classroom will be open for Symmetry practice at 5:00 pm. This is your chance to work with different partners and get some extra review in Symmetries 1 through 3. This is an informal practice session, but Kim and Stephen will be available to answer questions. Take advantage of this chance to reinforce new skills, revive old ones, and work with partners outside your usual class group.

Excellence in Our Community

Studio member Ali Selim is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and director who has worked in both film and television with major networks and actors. This Valentine’s Day, Ali will share his spoken-word story JUNO at Minnesota storyteller Kevin Kling’s annual Love Show. It sounds like a perfect evening out. Saturday, Feb. 14, 7:00 pm at O’Shaughnessy Auditorium.

Todd Nesser: Image Master

Todd Nesser has been a member of our T’ai Chi studio for more than 30 years. He is also a gifted graphic designer, with nearly four decades of experience creating award-winning branding and communications design for cultural institutions as well as corporate, financial, and medical clients.

Todd created our studio’s graphic identity—including our logo, stationery, website, event posters, decorations, and much more. His work has quietly and consistently shaped the visual language of our community.

With deep gratitude and appreciation, we honor Todd for this milestone anniversary and for all that he has created, contributed, and shared with the studio over the years.

New Classes

Heart Rhythm Meditation and
the 7 Precious Gestures Qigong

In qigong, meditation, and Chinese medicine, the relationship between the heart and brain is known as the heart-mind (Xin). The heart communicates with the brain and body through four primary pathways: the nervous system, hormones, pulse waves, and electromagnetic fields.

Heart Rhythm Meditation uses the breath and the heartbeat to consciously engage this communication system, gently drawing awareness out of habitual thinking and into the heart—supporting emotional resilience, coherence, and balance.

The 7 Precious Gestures Qigong is an ancient standing practice whose simple, rhythmic movements integrate the body with the heart-mind, cultivating steadiness and internal harmony.

Begins Monday, March 2 | 7:30–8:30 pm

The Dynamic Movements of the T’ai Chi Knife (Dao)

The Yang-style T’ai Chi Dao (knife/saber) form will be taught on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m., beginning March 4, following the Solo Form class.

This lively and engaging form features active footwork and expressive, coordinated movements that deepen your Solo Form practice, strengthen Pushing Hands skills, and refine upper-body integration and hand–foot harmony.

Students who have completed the Solo Form and can perform it independently are welcome to join and begin learning the T’ai Chi Knife Form.

Wednesdays beginning March 4 | 7:30 pm

Current Class Schedule

Monday
T’ai Chi Solo Form, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm (also Zoom)
Qigong and Meditation, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Tuesday
T’ai Chi Symmetries Levels 1 thru 7, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm
Advanced Symmetries, 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
1st Tuesday of the month: Symmetries Open Practice, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Wednesday 
Beginning Solo Form Fundamentals, 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Beginning Solo Form, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm
T’ai Chi Weapons: T’ai Chi Cane, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm (thru end of February)

Thursday
Solo Form, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm
Weapons Review, 7:15 pm – 7:30 pm
Beginning Push-Hands, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Saturday
Beginning Solo Form Sections 2 and 3, 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Common Warm-Up & Qigong, 11:00 am – 11:30 am
Beginning Solo Form Section 1, 11:00 am – 12:15 pm
Solo Form, 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm (also Zoom)

Meet Paul Abdella

Photographer: Dan Polsfuss

This interview with Sifu Paul Abdella is reprinted with permission from Canvas Rebel.

January 22, 2026

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paul Abdella. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers and tell them a bit about what you do, your brand or organization and what makes it interesting/special/unique or anything else you would like them to know about you/your story/your brand and what you are working on/etc.

I’m Paul Abdella — a martial artist, teacher, and artist. Those three threads have been woven through my life since childhood. I began martial arts as a kid, drawn first to the athletic and competitive side, and later to self-defense and practical reality-based systems. Eventually, the search for depth led me to the Chinese internal arts, and to T’ai-Chi Ch’uan (Tai Chi) — the art that became my lifelong path.

Ride the Wild Fire Horse

Calendars tell us when the year begins. The earth tells us something else.

Long before numbered months and fiscal quarters, we watched the return of light. We felt the slow thaw of winter. We marked time by solstice and seed, by darkness yielding to sun.

We live by symbols. Numbers, language, money, dates—all imaginative frameworks that help us navigate reality. In the Chinese tradition, 12 animals move through a 12-year cycle, each offering its particular spirit.

This is the Year of the Horse—vitality, movement, stamina, freedom.

And this year, the Horse runs with Fire.

Fire belongs to the heart. At its best, it warms and illuminates—joy, reverence, gratitude, love. When untended, it flares into impatience or burns toward excess.

Fire Horse energy favors movement. It resists being managed quietly. It calls toward authenticity and forward motion.

Yet in T’ai Chi, we learn that power without center scatters.

Outside, the returning sun loosens winter’s grip. What has been frozen begins to drip, to soften, to fall away. Sometimes, ice forms in more ways than one. And sometimes, what melts is not only seasonal.

Can we let warmth do its work—without becoming overheated ourselves?

Can we move with spirit and remain rooted?

Can we ride strength guided by awareness rather than reaction?

The horse is strong. The rider must be steady.

May the light this year soften what has hardened—within us and around us—while we remain balanced in the saddle.

Contact Us

For timely updates, follow Twin Cities T’ai Chi Ch’uan on Facebook. Email: mail@tctaichi.org Website: tctaichi.org Phone: 651.767.0267.
All articles and other content created by Paul Abdella unless otherwise noted.