Horacio Lopez, Director of BodyMind Center

Since 1975 Horacio Lopez has studied Tai Chi Chuan and Chi Kung with world-renowned teachers including William C.C. Chen, Kuo Lien Ying, B.K. Frantzis and Grand Master Yang Zenduo. With youthful enthusiasm for learning, Horacio began a journey that took him around the world in pursuit of studies to understand the roots of perception, consciousness, insight, and spirit, largely through art expressed in conscious movement - Tai Chi Chuan, dance, and active meditation. In his travels, he undertook personal studies with some of the most important teachers of the 20th Century including Luba Gurdjieff (niece of G.I. Gurdjieff), Moshe Feldenkrais (Awareness through Movement), David Bohm (philosophy of science), Jidu Krishnamurti (philosopher and teacher), and Osho Rajneesh (spiritual guide, friend).

Horacio developed his own personal understanding of the tremendous healing power of these arts from the study of Chi Kung and Tai Chi Chuan with B.K. Frantzis. Horacio sought out Master Frantzis for the purpose of his own personal treatment, after a serious back injury threatened the possibility of very risky spinal surgery. Through dedicated practice of Chi Kung and Tai Chi arts, Horacio's injury was substantially healed, and surgery avoided.

IN 1990, Horacio met Grand Master Yang Zhenduo. This meeting was a transformational experience for Horacio, who remained a devoted student of Grand Master Yang and traveled to China on numerous occasions for studies with Master Yang. Horacio personally hosted Master Yang in San Antonio, at the Center and other locations, for International Tai Chi Chaun workshops and training sessions in 1996, 1997, and 1998, 2000 and 2001. Horacio continued his pursuit of intensive studies with Grand Master Yang for 15 years, until Master Yang's retirement in 2005.

As a result of his dedication to Tai Chi Chuan, and the benefit of his intensive studies with Grand Master Yang, Horacio achieved world-wide recognition as a practitioner of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan.

In September 1995, Horacio along with a group of students went to Handan-Hebei province to represent USA Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan practitioners at the "Third China Yongnian International Tai Chi Chuan Gathering". Horacio and his students together were awarded First Place among 50 participating nations, based on their group performance of Yang Style Tai Chi Empty Hand Form and Yang Style Tai Chi Saber.

Again, in July 1997, Horacio took a group of students to Taiyuan, the home city of Grand Master Yang, to participate in the "20th Anniversary Celebration of the formation of the Shanxi Province Tai chi Chuan Association. During this visit, Horacio participated individually in an international competition among 350 Tai Chi practitioners from the U.S., Europe, Mainland China and Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. In the Overall Competition, Horacio achieved Second Place, reflecting his competitive performance of the Tai Chi Empty Hand, Saber, and Sword Forms. He was the only non-Asian competitor to place among the top five winners, also making him the first non-Asian to have reached this level of recognition among Traditional Yang Style practitioners worldwide.

Horacio has participated in a number of national- and state-level competitions in the U.S. He was ranked Second Place nationally among Yang Style Division Tai Chi practitioners in 1994. In October 1996, Horacio earned First Place in five events of the Advance Division at the Austin, USA Wushu-Kungfu Federation Regional Tournament where practitioners represented schools from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Gold medals were awarded for Horacio's performance in: Yang Style Tai Chi Chung Form; Tai Chi Sword Form; Tai Chi Saber Form; Heavy-weight Division Tai Chi Push Hands and Wu Family Style Tai Chi Chuan Form. In June 1998, Horacio achieved First Place in each of five events at the USA Wushu - Kungfu Federation Regional Tournament in Dallas, Texas for his performance of Yang Style Empty Hand, Saber, and Sword Forms and Push Hands. Additionally, a group of six of Horacio's students obtained first place for their performance of "Group Tai Chi Chung".

Horacio has taught workshops and seminars dealing with Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan in Argentina, Mexico, Italy, and India. He has taught accredited courses in Tai Chi as an Adjunct Professor at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

Beyond his achievements with Tai Chi Chuan, Horacio has earned recognition and accreditation in a number of other fields related to Natural and Alternative Healing. He is a certified Natural Therapeutics Specialist, having graduated in 1985 from the New Mexico School of Natural therapeutics, specializing in Cranio-sacral Therapy and Somatic Education. He is an active member of the International Association of Health care Practitioners. He is a volunteer offering instruction and therapy through Chi Kung and Tai Chi Chuan at the Cancer Therapy and Research Institute of San Antonio.

Horacio has naturally gravitated toward leadership positions in his chosen fields of study. He first opened his school, BodyMind Centered Therapies, in 1978. He has owned operated, and taught continuously at the school since that time, courses in Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, Somatics and Meditation. Formerly, Horacio was the Director of the first Yang Chengfu Tai Chi Chuan Center USA and also held responsibility in that organization for developing and maintaining practitioner ranking and standards at the national level (Director Department of Ranking Standards from 2000 to 2005).

Most importantly, during the past decades, Horacio has introduced the benefits of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, Meditation, and Somatic Education into the lives of hundreds of people of all ages. His youngest student is 15 years old; his two oldest students are 89 years old.