Sharon practicing at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, 2007

SHARON SMITH has been practicing Qigong, Tai Chi, & other Taoist spiritual and healing arts for 31 years & teaching them for 26. Her influential teachers include Masters Mantak Chia (she was in his original class of western students in 1981), Li Jun Feng, Ming Chan, and T.K. Shih.  She also studied with Jeanette Chi, Gilles Marin, Don Ahn, as well as many other Tao masters. Sharon is certified by Master Mantak Chia's Universal Tao system as a Senior Instructor and Chi Nei Tsang Practitioner.  She is also certified by the International Sheng Zhen Society to teach Sheng Zhen Wuji Yuan Gong, the work of Master Li Jun Feng.  In addition, Sharon has practiced Iyengar yoga for over 25 years. She has traveled many times to China, Thailand, India, the Philppines, and New Zealand to further her studies.

Sharon currently teaches seminars internationally as well as regularly at the New York Open Center.  She has also taught at 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, & the New York State Department of Parks & Recreation.

Sharon  was a presenter at the 2009 International Tai Chi Symposium in Nashville, Tennessee and is a recipient of numerous foundation grants for her work with senior citizens and in community mental health programs.  She 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 Uniersity, 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.