Our Institute's History

Our Institute's History Wu Chien Chuan - 1936

Our Institute’s history begins in July of 1987 when a group of Tai Chi Chuan enthusiasts approached Sifu Eddie Wu of Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy of Toronto to visit and give an introductory seminar.
This seminar, held in Ferndale Michigan, was attended by 27 students, Sifu Wu and four of his assistants from Toronto, one of whom was Sifu Stephen Britt, at the time Sifu Wu’s eldest disciple.
The enthusiasm with which the art was greeted by the participants greatly impressed Sifu Wu and Sifu Britt. After much discussion it was agreed that a pilot project would begin to establish instruction on a permanent basis, headed by Sifu Britt.
At the time he started instruction in Michigan he had retired as Assistant Vice-President of claims for a major Canadian property/casualty insurance company and was living in a converted schoolhouse in a Mennonite community in the Northern part of Southern Ontario, about 5 hours north of Detroit.
He was at the time continuing as an assistant instructor in the Toronto Academy as well as running programs he had established in Kitchener, Waterloo, Paris and Brantford Ontario teaching the general public and seniors. Sifu Britt had acted as an assistant instructor since 1978 when he established the first branch school in Willowdale, Ontario.

Testing the waters, instruction was started first at a Masonic Temple in Birmingham, then in a church in Ferndale, then to a D.A.V. Hall in Royal Oak. The interest remained high and the Michigan support was strong, so Sifu Britt was encouraged that the project might succeed.
The North American Free Trade Agreement had just come into the picture and Sifu Britt approached the US government for permission to establish a school, which was granted, and placing his properties in Canada as collateral, funds were developed to establish a full time premises in Royal Oak, on Main Street, just South of 6th.

Our First School in Royal Oak - 1989

The hard work put in by the students paid off, and the school became well-established, and Sifu Wu took on several of the members as disciples, becoming thus younger brothers and sisters of Sifu Britt’s generation.
The achievement of the school in Detroit has been phenomenal. The discipleship has grown and now there are several disciples running programs through over 30 centers in Metropolitan Detroit.
The Academy has sent teams representing the US on tours of south-east Asia and China three times, involving over 100 students and covering visits to Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Taiwan and Vietnam, meeting with the Wu family members and students to share information and cultural exchange.
Members have competed and taken medals in the Pan-American Wushu games. In June of 2005 our school separated from the International Academies and now moves forward as a self-governed Institute.
Classes have been established in such diverse areas as instruction for seniors, for the public, in hospitals in cardio/pulmonary rehabilitation, in oncology, occupational therapy and psychiatry, specialized classes in Autism, Parkinsonism and multiple-sclerosis, corporate classes in stress management and occupational hazard risk-reduction and lecture format classes for fourth year medical students through Children’s hospital and Wayne State University focusing on Tai Chi Chuan as alternative therapy.
The Institute has been featured on news broadcasts on channels 2, 4 and 7 locally as well as various radio programs and cable shows.
Sifu Britt is very proud of all those involved in the establishment of this Institute and has great hopes for the further success of our endeavors.