About Me
Qialance is a Taijiquan and Qi Gong blog written by Angelika Fritz, a practitioner with over 20 years of experience and a strong belief that Taijiquan can be practiced by everyone, especially women. This is not a teacher’s platform. There are no classes to sell. Just honest writing from someone who practices, reads a lot, and shares what she finds.
From ballet to Taijiquan: my lifelong love of precise movement
I started ballet at age five. Twelve years of careful footwork, exact arm positions, and doing the same thing again and again until it becomes something beautiful. That love of precise, detailed movement never really left me.
I had tried a Taijiquan class in my gym in 2000. But I quit when I moved. Some years later, I was working as a business consultant. It was demanding intellectual work. I loved it, but I needed a balance for my body. I tried the treadmill, but that was not helping with my busy brain. I started looking for something that would need my whole attention.
I remembered Taijiquan. And luckily, I found an ongoing Sunday course. Once a month, three hours workshops, 108 long Yang form.
That was the beginning of my Taijiquan journey.
Taijiquan is part of my life. Life is also part of my life.
In 2008, Taijiquan became an even more important part in my life. I decided to start teaching. That’s when I came up with the name:
Qialance = Qi + Balance
I enjoyed teaching, but life was life-ing, things changed. The one thing that stayed with me the whole time: my own Taijiquan practice.
And just to be clear: I know there are people who dedicate everything to this art. Who wake up at five in the morning to practice for many hours. Who have studied with grandmasters all over the world. I have deep respect for that path.
It’s just not my path.
My path looks different: I am a woman, living in a city apartment with my busy family. And I want to be honest with you: those twenty years with Taijiquan have not always been consistent. There have been missed days. Missed weeks. Sometimes even months where practice was simply not high on my list.
But I come back. Again and again. And somehow, no matter how long the gap, my form is still ready, waiting for me. I am very grateful for that.
So I now try to practice more regularly. To learn every day. To stay connected with Taijiquan, because I enjoy it so much.
One way of my connecting with this martial art is through reading and writing.
The blog I needed didn’t exist. So I built it.
My writing actually started when I became a mom. I cruised the internet a lot. I found wonderful blogs with like-minded people. But in 2011, the Taijiquan content fell into one of two categories. Either the webpage was a teacher selling me classes. Or it was a blog with philosophical deep-dives that required a degree in Chinese literature to follow. Most of them written by men.
As new mom with limited mental bandwidth, I wanted something else. I wanted to read a blog by a Western woman, who shared her Taijiquan journey. Someone who was sharing her struggles. Someone I could learn alongside, without feeling like I was being sold something or talked down to.
I looked for it. I couldn’t find it.
So in 2012, I started writing myself. I wanted to share my own learnings, failures, insights. I started to write for a woman like me. Hoping to connect with people from all over the world.
This blog is for you if you are looking for a Taijiquan friend
Maybe you have questions you never ask in class. Not because they are bad questions. Just because the moment passes, or the group moves on, or it feels like everyone else already knows the answer.
This blog is that friend you can ask. Use the search bar or cruise through the pages.
You will find moves explained in plain language. Chinese terms unpacked without a philosophy degree. Practical things, like what to wear and which books are actually worth reading. And personal things, like what it feels like to practice Taijiquan as a woman in the West, with a full life and not always enough time.
Qialance is where we can talk about all of it. There is always something to discover here.
Not sure where to start? Start here.
If you are new to Qialance, welcome. There is a lot to explore, so here are a few good starting points.
If you want to understand the form better, this post about the most important moves in the Yang long form might surprise you. Spoiler: the flashy moves are not the most important ones.
Or if you have ever wondered exactly where your Dantian actually is, this post explains it. It is one of those terms that gets mentioned in every class but rarely gets explained properly.
For something more specific, I love talking about individual moves. Grasp the Bird’s Tail is a good example.
If you are looking for form references to bookmark, these two lists are a good place to start:
- Tai Chi 24 form moves in Chinese and Pinyin
- Cheng Man-ching 37 form posture names
- Yang style 108 long form
For all my fellow readers, my list of the best Tai Chi books is a good place to spend some time. And if you are not sure about all the Chinese terms, I even wrote a reference book because I couldn’t find one: The Taijiquan and Qi Gong Dictionary.
Or you could discover some of my more reflective posts, like this post about practicing what you have already learnt.
Keep practicing
I want to practice daily. But I also know that I happen to miss days. What I try is to incorporate the Taijiquan principles into my every day.
Sometimes it is just a small thing. Noticing my shoulders are tense while I wait for the bus. Remembering to be pulled gently upward from the top of my head while standing in line at the supermarket. Taijiquan has a way of showing up in ordinary moments, even when you are nowhere near a practice space.
As I kept thinking about Taijiquan, I actually had the idea to write a novel:
Push Hand. A Tai Chi Novel (to be published in 2026)
It’s a short Tai Chi crime novel set during a weekend workshop. I wrote it so you can read it on your way to a Tai Chi workshop or curled up on the sofa on a calm Saturday afternoon.
So let’s keep practicing, let’s keep thinking about this wonderful martial art.
Come back here, when you have questions or when you just want to read something about Taijiquan. There is always something to discover here.
And if you want to, write me an email and share your Taijiquan with me! I would love to hear from you.
Happy Qi!
Angelika
