Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Mimi Kuo-Deemer teaches qigong, Buddhist meditation and the internal martial arts of Baguazhang and Xingyiquan from her home in the Oxfordshire countryside. American by birth, she studied at Stanford and then spent well over a decade in Beijing, working as a photographer and helping to start one of the city's first yoga studios. Her qigong took root during those years in China. She was later accepted as a disciple in the Liu Fengchun line of Baguazhang, which makes her a sixth-generation lineage holder, and Martin Aylward has authorised her to teach Insight Meditation. She also holds a master's degree from SOAS on the yoga and meditation traditions.

Her classes pair slow, flowing forms with Daoist and Buddhist thinking about nature, the seasons and the Five Phases, and she keeps the mood playful as well as exact. Most weekly classes run live on Zoom on a donation basis, backed by a library of recorded series; she also leads residential retreats in England, France and at Omega in New York, mentors new qigong teachers, and has free and paid courses on Commune. Her two books, Xiu Yang and Qigong and the Tai Chi Axis, were published by Orion Spring in the UK.