HIIIYAAA!!! Martial Arts anyone?

[shootingstar]

The 24 form version was developed in 1956 and Tai Chi purists HATE it, they consider it near sacrilegious because it's intended for exercise, flexibility, and a little bit as a form of moving meditation. It was developed to promote health and physical fitness by the communist regime in power at the time and almost totally ignores Tai Chi's origin as a martial art (at least according to the Tai Chi enthusiasts who hate it).

Sometime in the 70's the Chinese government sponsored development of a slightly longer, 48 form version.

That's exactly what I want out of Tai Chi.

There's another 37 form version which I'm pretty sure is a shortened form of the 108 form Yang version. That link someone gave to the Taoist Tai Chi Society is yet another shortened version of the Yang forms.

Tai Chi, even when practiced as a martial art, is extremely organic and there are more different versions out there than you can shake a stick at. I'm sure that's at least part of the reason there's no formal hierarchy like there is in some of the other martial arts.

I only took 1 course, Zensoujourner and perhaps I confused with what I was told by the instructor....there were 100+ movements we had to memorize for a whole sequence.

Precisely there are different versions of Tai Chi..which I didn't take time to memorize the different types.

Hope you do find a course to learn with a group/instructor some day. Maybe one of those contacts in list...will lead you to a network to eventually a practitioner who does practice what you want.