Our Instructors

  • Jimmy Ilson

    Jimmy Ilson

    j_ilson@yahoo.com
    413-210-6791

    Jimmy Ilson was born in New York City.  He credits staring at the Guernica in the Museum of Modern Art, as often as possible, as one of the most formative aspects of his artistic life.  He is proud to be a Badger, an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he received a BFA in painting, and where he began studying T’ai Chi. Jimmy also lived in San Francisco, during the most seismic active period in the last century, where he earned an MFA in Printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute.  During his time in San Francisco Jimmy studied with Ben Lo at the Universal T’ai Chi Institute. When he moved to the Pioneer Valley in 1995 he began studying and teaching with Wolfe Lowenthal at the Long River T’ai Chi Circle.

    He presently teaches Art and Tai Chi in the Pioneer Valley. 

  • Patrick Cavanaugh

    patricklrtcc@gmail.com
    802-490-6405

    Patrick is a long time student and assistant of Wolfe Lowenthal. He is a full time instructor, teaching form, sensing hands,  sword form and fencing. Classes run in Brattleboro, Putney, Norwich, and Burlington, Vermont, and in Keene, New Hampshire. Patrick also serves as editor of Wolfe’s monthly email publication, Taichi Thoughts.

  • Suzanne Strauss

    suzannetaichi@gmail.com
    413-387-9947

    Originally from New Jersey, Suzanne has been studying tai chi and teaching high school English since 1990. She became a student of Wolfe Lowenthal in the late 1990’s and has been a tai chi instructor for over a dozen years in the Northampton, MA, area.

  • Djemila Lekouara Cavanaugh

    djem.translator@gmail.com
    802-490-0225

    Djem is a long time student in the Cheng Man-ch’ing tradition. Passionate about sharing this art, she quickly became a teaching assistant and then a teacher in France before moving to Vermont, where she has been studying closely with Wolfe Lowenthal and teaching as a part of Long River Tai Chi Circle in VT and NH. In her project to make Tai chi and its health benefits accessible to all, she also teaches at Senior Centers and has worked with schools, adapting classes content to participants needs and abilities.