Magic Tortoise Jia Taijiquan Director/Shifu: Dr. Jay Dunbar is the founder and director of the school, began Taijiquan studies in 1975 with Ruby Blaurock, a student of W.T.R. Chung, who was in turn a student of Kuo, Lien Ying, who brought the Guang Ping lineage to this country. In 1976 he traveled to San Francisco to study with Chung and Kuo, and met Henry Look, his primary Yiquan teacher, for the first time. In 1978 he began a discipleship with Jou, Tsung Hwa which was to span the next 20 years, until Master Jou’s tragic death in an automobile accident on August 3, 1998. Dr. Jay has also studied with Dr. John Painter, and taken workshops with many teachers, including Zhu, Tian Cai; Liang, Shouyu; Yang, Jwing Ming; Yang, Zhenduo; Shi, Zheng Zhong; Huang, Chien-Liang; Susanna DeRosa, and Sam Masich. He graduated summa cum laude from Colgate, received an M.A. in English Literature from Duke, and a Ph.D. in Education from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1991, with a dissertation entitled "Let A Hundred Flowers Bloom: A Profile of Taijiquan Instruction in America". In 1982, with Almanzo Lamoureux, Pat Rice, Steve Rhodes, Cas Overton, Kim Ragland, and others he founded the Southeastern Taijiquan Society to promote sharing among players from all schools, and served as editor of its newsletter, "Changes," for six years. In 2001 he established the Jou, Tsung Hwa Memorial Dantian Challenge in honor of his teacher of twenty years, and designed and produced the bronze medallions which are awarded to those who meet the challenge. He has served as judge and referee in numerous tournaments including ATOC, USWKF, USCKF, and the Taiji Legacy since 1989, and has developed tournament rules for form competitions that encourage interaction between judges and competitors, and for push-hands intended to foster and reward good Taijiquan. He was technical editor of Tai Chi for Dummies (Hungry Minds, 2001), and contributed the foreword to Exploring Tai Chi, by John Loupos (YMAA, 2003). He has presented courses or workshops at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, the N.Y. Open Center, The American Dance Festival, the Guang Ping Annual Conventions, etc., teaching knee safety, qigong, Yi Jing divination, straight sword, and Chen and Wu/Hao styles of taijiquan. With his wife, Shifu Kathleen Cusick, he has team-taught over 40 intensives in the traditional 88-movement San Shou. His daughter Katharine, currently an undergraduate at UNC-Chapel Hill, is Music Director of the women’s a capella group, the Loreleis .