Bataan Faigao

Bataan Faigao studied with Grand Master Cheng Man-ch’ing from 1968-1975. He has been teaching in the Denver-Boulder area and in many cities in North America and Europe since 1976. At Naropa University, he is a core faculty member and Chair of the Traditional Eastern Arts Department. He is also the director of Rocky Mountain T'ai-chi Ch'uan Foundation, Inc. He edited and published Full Circle, a literary journal devoted to the study of t’ai-chi ch’uan (1984-1989).

Philosophy of Teaching: T’ai-chi Ch’uan is a journey of spiritual discovery. I encourage students to work hard and to adhere to principles. I teach T’ai-chi Ch’uan as a complete system for health, meditation, self-defense and as a way of the tao. Learning this art is a process that takes care of the external to get to the internal, going back and forth from form to application, understanding and experience.

Poetics: Bataan’s poetry is published in Festschrift for KFB (an international anthology of poetry, Tambimuttu, ed., Lyrebird Press, London, 1972), Bombay Gin, New Blood, New York Underground, Ningas Cogon, Human Means, The New Savage State, Sniper Logic and other publications. Recently, his poetry was anthologized in Brown River, White Ocean, An Anthology of Twentieth-century Philippine Literature in English (Luis Francia, ed., Rutgers University Press, 1993) and Returning a Borrowed Tongue (Nick Carbo, ed., Coffee House Press, 1996). A short story is included in the anthology Flippin': Filipinos on America (Asian American Writers' Workshop, N. Y., 1996). He has given public readings in New York City and in Boulder through the Boulder Poetry Project and Naropa University. Mr. Faigao is a recipient of awards from the Boulder Arts Council (1984 and 1982 ).

A CD of a poetry and music collaboration (with Wendy Woo) entitled Ecolalia was released in 2000.

Site design by Tambi Faigao at tambi@aimnet.com
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Copyright, 2001