About Cloud Hands T'ai C'hi Instructor: Michael Ward, LCSW

Michael Ward has been studying and practicing T'ai Chi for thirty-five years. He has taught T'ai Chi to people from 9 to 90 years of age in settings as diverse as senior centers, major corporations and institutions. Mr. Ward began his study of T'ai Chi in 1976 with John Eastman, who was given permission to teach by Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing, a renowned master of T'ai Chi. Professor Cheng was not only a master of T'ai Chi Chuan, but was regarded as a "Master of the Five Excellences": medicine, painting, poetry, and calligraphy, in addition to T'ai Chi.

Mr. Ward later studied for almost a decade with Robert Smith, the first Western student of Professor Cheng and was given permission to teach by him. Mr. Smith and Professor Cheng co-authored one of the first English language texts on T'ai Chi. When Mr. Smith's retirement in 1989, Mr. Ward has studied for the past twenty years with Ms. Maggie Newman, another of Professor Cheng's senior students in New York City. Michael Ward learned the sword form of T'ai Chi from Ms. Newman in 1990. She has recently given Michael Ward her permission to teach the T'ai Chi sword form to his students.

Michael Ward is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of Maryland with a Master Degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland. In addition to teaching T'ai Chi, he has worked developing programs to enhance the well-being of children, families, schools and communities for thirty years. He has worked extensively with therapeutic adventure, teaching people how to use the challenges of rock-climbing, caving, white-water boating, and group games as metaphors for the challenges of daily living. T'ai Chi concepts like "Balance" and "Centering" are directed to more than our physical bodies and Mr. Ward's experience, background and training have given him a unique perspective on their value and benefit in today's stressful environments.

Michael Ward is the president and founder of Cloud Hands T'ai Chi, Inc. He is currently teaching with CityDance in the Music Center at Strathmore; at Crossings, A Center for the Healing Traditions in Silver Spring; and at the Somerset Town Hall in Chevy Chase. He also has taught classes on T'ai Chi and Taoism at the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, D.C. and at the Tai Sophia Institute in Columbia, Maryland.

For more information on either community based or workplace classes in T'ai Chi,
please call at 301-562-0992, email or write:

Michael Ward
P. O. Box 8026
Silver Spring, MD 20907