PMH Summer Season Opens June 2 With Stress-Bending Tai Chi

New Haven, Conn. (May 3, 2024)—A harbinger of summer on the Connecticut coastline, the annual opening of the historic Pardee-Morris House (PMH) will take place on Sunday, June 2, 2024, at noon. The season opens with a welcoming Tai Chi class on the lawn with Shifu Shirley Chock, known on social media as @theStressbender, at 2 p.m. The historic house will be open for free tours from noon to 4 p.m.

The free class will touch on Tai Chi philosophy, and Chock will guide participants through Tai Chi movements to help improve focus, strength, and balance. Participants are asked to wear comfortable clothes and shoes.

Shifu Shirley Chock is the owner and executive director of Aiping Tai Chi. She trained under the guidance of Grandmaster Aiping Cheng since 2001 and was appointed as the school’s assistant director before taking over ownership in 2017. She has led the Aiping Tai Chi competition team to multiple grand championships in national and international competitions, including winning the 2006 U.S. Wushu Union Women’s National Champion title.  

She is a certified health qigong instructor under the Chinese Health Qigong Association and International Health Qigong Federation and studied wushu kung fu and mixed martial arts before transitioning to internal martial arts. She is also a certified corporate wellness specialist.

She earned an economics degree from the University of Chicago and held a successful career in finance and administration leadership roles prior to taking over Aiping Tai Chi. She was included in New Haven BIZ's Power 25 Class of 2023. She has more than 200,000 followers on social media and her YouTube channel was recommended by the New York Times.