Lenzie Williams

I was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. After high school, I joined the Navy for four years (one year with the Marine Corps as a field medical corpsman in Vietnam). About a year after release from the Navy, I started to attend college with emphasis in psychology and sociology. At the same time I attended Gestalt and other personal development groups and workshops, and also started therapy. Having discovered meditation and metaphysics, I became totally fascinated and deeply interested in this area. I then proceeded to seriously study different yogic, metaphysical, meditative, and spiritual-development systems for the next few years. This process led me to my long-standing Tai Chi Chuan teacher, Lo Pang Jeng (Mr. Ben Lo) in 1975. Intuitively and after several months of studying, I began to realize this seemingly simple, but arduous, Tai Chi system embodied the essence of all my various studies. It was a somewhat esoteric or hidden path to the development of one’s complete being. I discovered through this training system that one is taught the process of gaining deeper and deeper access to the Essential experience and wisdom of the Body, Heart, Mind, and Spirit. I had to some degree accessed some of these qualities in my previous work, but now I was asked or challenged to access them in the martial (Warriorship) context; and, even more, to access and apply these Principles and related experiences to my daily life. I knew this was my Gifted Work. With diligence, integrity, patience, perseverance, and passion I have been quite fortunate to continue to grow and develop in this Art throughout my years of study and practice. Over the years I have also visited and taken workshops with other high-level Tai Chi and martial art instructors, in an attempt to begin to understand the full dimensions of the Art.

I have also participated in Tai Chi Chuan push hands tournaments in the U.S. and Taiwan. I have won or placed in most of these. Most notable was the Taste of China Tournament held in Winchester, Virginia, where I won the Push Hands Grand Championship in 1988 and 1990.

Of important value has been the multi-level lesson of winning and success, and also learning the multi-level lesson of losing and non-success.

With deep Appreciation and Gratitude I continued to train with my teacher, Laoshi Ben Lo until he passed in October 2018. Throughout more than four decades training with Laoshi Lo — and beyond — I have committed to working with my continually developing and changing self, with my beloved students who I feel so thankful to have, and with my Tai Chi classmates and the larger Tai Chi Chuan community, nationally and internationally.

Senior Student Instructors

Ruth Minka has been part of Tai Chi Berkeley for over thirty years. She has done the Tai Chi training and work to be a Senior Student and Senior Instructor for over two decades. She also brings healing knowledge and skills from her years as a chiropractor.

Jim Hughes has been with Tai Chi Berkeley for over thirty years. Jim has been a Senior Instructor for over a decade. Jim spent many years cultivating and developing special skills teaching English as a Second Language to students from diverse cultures and low-income families.

Mark Harpainter has been a part of Tai Chi Berkeley for thirty years. While training, Mark has developed Senior Student level and Instructor level. Mark’s life work is being an art conservator (working to repair and restore delicate and complex antiques, his specialty being wood craftsmanship). His understanding of individual body parts, relationship to the whole, and synchronistic movement serves him well in understanding and teaching the complexity of the Tai Chi movements.

David (Dave) Brooks has studied Tai Chi for twenty-five years, and has been a part of Tai Chi Berkeley for nearly two decades; Dave also studied Tai Chi for seven years prior to joining Tai Chi Berkeley. Dave spent many years as an instructor of Humanities and Philosophy. As a Tai Chi Berkeley instructor for over a decade, he brings some nice “gems” of understanding Chinese culture and philosophy to his teaching.

David Streitfeld has been with Tai Chi Berkeley for over 15 years. He has been a Senior Instructor since 2019. In addition to his Tai Chi teaching skills, David applied his computer programming experience to help the school go “online” during the pandemic, helping to develop “Zoom” class offerings to keep the school’s classes going.

Lori Mazan started with Tai Chi Berkeley more than 30 years ago. At that time, in addition to becoming a serious and committed Tai Chi student, she was raising her son Mike (then about four years old) and starting a career coaching and training business. Her coaching skills and Tai Chi development came together to enable her to develop into a very fine Senior Student and Senior Instructor. Lori also spent some time training in Taiwan. She now lives in Southern California, where she teaches Tai Chi intermittently, and is Co-CEO of a successful coaching company.

Steve Masover has been a participant in Tai Chi Berkeley for 40 years, and was among the school’s first Senior Students and Instructors. Steve continues to attend Tai Chi Berkeley classes, and maintains his longstanding individual practice. For the past several decades, Steve has taken on the task of logistics and business issues for the school.

All Senior Instructors have attended classes regularly for many years, deepening their understanding and methods of teaching the Art. They also attend Tai Chi Camp annually, in addition to other workshops. This allows Senior Instructors to connect with the larger Tai Chi community and to develop great ongoing and connected relationships and friendships. Also, Lenzie’s Senior Students and Instructors have taken workshops and Tai Chi Camps with Master Ben Lo, Lenzie’s longtime teacher: a profound gift and training; as well as with other notable Tai Chi Instructors. This broad experience has contributed to their development as special instructors of Tai Chi Chuan.

Lori and Steve have worked meticulously and diligently to bring together the miraculous events called Tai Chi Camps – intensive, 6-day Tai Chi trainings that run from 7:00 am to 9:30 pm, taking our bodies, emotions, minds, and spirits to their limits and beyond, transcendent and transformative work; as well as Tai Chi Workshops and other events involving deep community connection and profound Tai Chi practice and learning. Lori and Steve have been so important in the external organization of the school, as well as the complexity and internal workings of the school. Lenzie is deeply thankful, with profound gratitude for the compassion and love Lori and Steve have contributed to him, and to what Tai Chi Berkeley is about.