With an amateur and professional performance career spanning more than 10 years, Laoshi Markle has written and directed plays, written, produced and narrated 3 documentaries involving Chinese Chi Kung and elementary education, and danced, choreographed, acted, and sang in a variety of venues and genres.

Earning a Bachelor’s of Arts in Theatre from the University of Buffalo, Laoshi Markle trained in Ballet, Jazz, Musical Theatre, and Voice at The University. She was vocally trained for nearly 10 years with a number of professional voice teachers, and even briefly practiced Classical Opera singing as part of her performance training regime. She also attended the American Conservatory Theatre Summer Training Congress, in San Francisco, spending 8 intensive hours per day learning ballet, fencing, body movement, voice and other performance skills.

Laoshi trained Middle Eastern/Eqyptian Dance with Folkloric productions, a Buffalo Dance company, and also performed & choreographed solo pieces with the local group. She trained Egyptian Dance & Interpretive dance with Instructors in San Francisco, such as Amina Goodyear and Suhaila Salimpour and performed at the Marrakesh and other small venues in L.A. and the Bay area. She practiced Ashtanga, Iyengar and Shivenanda Yoga in the San Francisco Bay area as well. The Dance subject of an award winning picture for the Western New York Awards for Creative Excellence, Laoshi Markle’s picture was printed on the cover of Aspire magazine, a Business magazine distributed throughout Central and Western N.Y.

Prior to completing her Theatrical Arts degree, she was able to become a part of the Professional Actor’s Equity, a difficult position to secure, especially in Buffalo, N.Y., where there are few opportunities to do so. Having performed at such professional studios as Studio Arena Theatre, the Pfeifer Theatre, and The Kavinoky Theatre, Laoshi Markle eventually gave up her performance career to pursue Kung Fu and study Buddhism full time. At that time, she spent an intensive couple of years, alongside her Kung Fu training, practicing and learning the techniques of specific tumbling skills with a professional Gymnastic Coach. Laoshi successfully learned to coach and execute different tumbling skills, such as front flips, front and back hand springs and walk overs, aerial cartwheels and aerial round-offs. She now has many Martial Arts students who can proficiently perform one or many of these skills.

After studying Martial Arts for 15 years and deciding to devote her entire life to Martial Arts, Buddhism and to the pursuit of helping others, she has integrated her Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Tumbling and Yoga experience with her dance experience to create Tian Xian Wu, or “Heavenly Immortal Dance”.