Examiner
Bette Midler and Tai Chi
NOVEMBER 13, 2012B
BY: VIOLET LI
Oprah Winphrey is the queen of TV talk shows. She can get anyone to speak freely and share his/her deep thoughts and secrets. Last year, she retired from the nation’s highest rated talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show. She is now focusing on her own network, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and hosting a similar show called Oprah’s Next Chapter. On Nov. 11, she visited Bette Midler in her Manhattan apartment. Bette discussed her legendary career, what’s ahead in her next chapter and her latest movie, Parental Guidance with Billy Crystal. Bette also revealed her biggest regrets, her best decision in life and what she really thinks about “Wind Beneath My Wings,” the song made famous by her 1988 movie Beaches. She even allowed the camera crew to film her doing Tai Chi with her personal instructor Grandmaster Ren Guangyi in her apartment’s beautiful sun room.
Born in Dec. 1, 1945, Bette Midler is a singer, songwriter, actress, comedian, producer and entrepreneur. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and won four Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award. She has sold over 30 million albums with hits like “The Rose,” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “From a Distance,” and “Hello in There”. In May this year, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg honored Bette with the Doris C. Freedman Award, one of the city’s highest honors for her commitment to the environment and arts.
Contrary to her showbiz persona, Bette Midler admitted that she is actually very shy. She began studying Tai Chi a few years ago. According to her husband, Martin von Haselberg, and Grandmaster Ren, she can perform Chen Style Tai Chi 19 Form really well. However, she did not want to be photographed doing Tai Chi due to her modesty. We were grateful to finally see her practice a few moves, even though it was for just a short period of time.
During the interview with Oprah, Bette stated that her best decision in life is marrying Martin, who was a contemporary performance artist known for the creation of Kipper Kids. Martin is also a professional photographer and artist. His photograph of Ren’s hook hand became a symbol of Tai Chi representing “relaxed yet ready”. Martin is a long-time martial art enthusiast. He had studied Choy Lay Fut before and started his Tai Chi journey in 2002 with Ren Guangyi. Martin takes two private lessons each week and practices two hours each day. In June, he attended the 4th Tiger Claw Kung Fu Magazine Champions tournament held in San Jose, CA and won the title of the moving-step Push Hands as well as a gold medal in a hand form competition.
While I interviewed Marvin during the tournament, he mentioned that he set a task for himself to get his wife “addicted” to the art. It looks like that he has been even more than he imagined in persuading his wife to practice Tai Chi on TV.
And I thought I knew everything about her! This is news to me! How exciting!