During that time Dr. Taylor and I were trying to do what we could to convince Western Medicine of the efficacy of what we were doing. We were involved with the early years of Bastyr University’s rise in complementary medicine and Harborview’s development of their complementary services. However, there was no real research – the breakthrough study on Tai Chi and Balance with Emory University was in the works but would not be published until 1997. Bill Moyer’s “The Mystery of Qi” series with David Eisenburg had been out for only a short time. The only research we could find in English were some mediocre articles published in Tai Chi magazine. Basically, Western Medicine wasn’t buying it. Patients, on the other hand, were curious.
One of the Pain Clinic Classes. Many of these folks stayed with me for years.
One day Dr. Taylor and I had a joint presentation scheduled at Swedish Hospital, part of a trial seminar on Complementary Medicine, which was just starting to emerge in Seattle. (This is before insurance companies ok’ed acupuncture and Bastyr was still in the University district’s red brick school house). Doc Taylor told me to get whatever research I could from those magazines, and he would add the MD credibility to it. Right as we were stepping on stage to present to the audience of 60 medical professionals and patients, he was pulled away. He looked at me and said, “I have to go into surgery.” I stepped on to the stage alone.
I couldn’t fake being an MD, but I could be a Tai Chi teacher! I had to think fast so I asked everyone stand up from their tiny little auditorium chairs and said, “follow me, please.” I taught them “Cloud Hands” and “Parting Horse’s Mane from Yang Style.” There was little room; somehow it worked. I’m sure I spoke about our program at the Pain Clinic a bit. All I remember is wanting to get out of there as fast as I could. No one knew I had once again made plans to leave Seattle.
As I was leaving, a group of people tracked me down. They wanted to know where I was teaching. I said, I’m not, I’m finishing up a program and will be leaving the area. I remember one woman, Candace Sanders, said, “And who will teach us?” “I’ll get you a list of teachers,” I replied. (There were 2 here at the time.) She wasn’t having it. “But no one can teach people in pain like you did today, I’ve tried to find them.” I looked at the line of people and said, “Ok, I’ll give you 8 weeks.” There were 16 people in that first class at the then Crossroad’s Learning Center in Capitol Hill.
That one class became two when someone asked me if I had a class at a different time for a friend of hers. I was teaching Yang Style at the time when another student said, “what is the name of our school?” “We have a school?” I was baffled. She said, “Look around!” Another one said, “Isn’t it “Embrace The Moon? You are always saying that!” (A nic-name for the transitional movements in the form some teachers used at that time to get students to put their hands in the correct position). Well, I knew “Ch’i In Motion,” the name I was using for a business license at the time, wasn’t a school name so I thought, “sure! why not.” Photographer Fritz (Fredrick) Dent and I were good friends from the Macrina Bakery days. One day after he saw me practicing, he said, “Miss Ivy, I have your logo.” (Neither one of us will ever tell how he did it!)
Embrace The Moon Logo, by Fredrick Dent