SHARON SMITH has been practicing Qigong, Tai Chi, & other Taoist spiritual and healing arts for 44 years & teaching them for 39. Her influential teachers include Masters Mantak Chia (she was in his original class of western students in 1981), Li Junfeng, Ming Chan, and T.K. Shih. Other important teachers include Jeanette Chi, Gilles Marin, Don Ahn, Carol Anthony, and Livia Kohn as well as many other Tao masters.
Sharon is certified by Master Mantak Chia’s Universal Healing Tao system as a Senior Instructor (Level 2) and Chi Nei Tsang Practitioner. She is also certified by the International Sheng Zhen Society to teach Sheng Zhen Gong, the work of Master Li Junfeng. In 2011, she attended the Wudang Martial Arts Internal Kung Fu Academy in China.
In addition, Sharon has practiced Iyengar yoga for over 35 years and has traveled many times to China, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Europe, and New Zealand to further her studies.
Sharon was the host as well as one of the top 5 rated presenters at The Shift Network’s Qigong Global Summits from 2020 – 2022.. In 2017 and 2019, she created and directed The Immortal Sisters Conferences, historic gatherings of women committed to “Returning to Tao” and honoring Yin in an overly Yang world.
Pre-Covid, Sharon taught seminars internationally as well as regularly at the New York Open Center. Other teaching venues have included The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, Master Mantak Chia’s Tao Garden in Thailand, Omega Institute, Healing Tao University, The Learning Annex, Wainwright House, United Nations Feng Shui Club, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, Morningside Retirement Health Services, Dorot Senior Center, Jubilee Senior Center, Healing Tao of New York, La Guardia Community College, Queens College, New York University, Adult Education Division of the New York City Board of Education, and the New York State Department of Parks & Recreation.
Sharon was a seminar leader at China’s “Women in Daoism” conference in 2011 and presented her work with senior citizens at the 2009 International Tai Chi Symposium in Nashville, Tennessee. She has received numerous foundation grants for her work with senior citizens and in community mental health programs. Sharon was a spokesperson for Qigong on the nationally syndicated PBS television show, “Asian America” and was the Chinese Astrology columnist for the Asian Food and Lifestyle Journal from 2005-2007.
Her photographs are in the collections of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hofstra University Library, Special Collections Department, Hempstead, NY; Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; The Polaroid Corporation, Cambridge, Mass.; Polaroid Europa, Offenbach, Germany; Polaroid Far East, LTD, Hong Kong as well as many private collections in the U.S. and Europe.
For information about her artwork, visit www.imagesbysharonsmith.com. Her film, “Saturn Saved Me” about her experiences with Indian astrologers was released in 2015. For further information, please contact me at ta*******@ea*******.net or call 212-243-6771.
