Dan has been training continuously in martial arts since 1981. His studies have included the following:
- Okinawan karate; and
- the Chen Pan Ling system of gong fu (kung fu), including taiji (tai chi), bagua (pa kua), xingyi (hsing i) and shaolin (hard style gong fu); and
- traditional Chinese grappling and throwing arts known as qin na (chin na); and
- various weapons arts from China, Japan and the Philippines (including arnis/escrima/kali).
Master Chen and I after the bai shi ceremony in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 2009.
In 2009 Dan was accepted as a first generation bai shi (inner door student) of Grandmaster Chen Yun Ching of Taiwan, son of the late Chen Pan Ling. In that capacity he shares in the honour and obligation of preserving the encyclopedic body of traditional knowledge passed down from Chen Pan Ling to his son Chen Yun Ching.
He is one of the few instructors teaching rarer “internal” arts such as xingyiquan (hsing i chuan) and baguazhang (pa kua chang) in the Perth area, and certainly one of the only instructors fortunate to have a direct (first generation) lineage to one of China’s grandmasters.
Dan is currently the Chief Instructor of the Academy of Traditional Fighting Arts based at the Bayswater Martial Arts and Yoga Centre in Perth, Western Australia.
He holds separate classes in karate/weapons and the gong fu (kung fu). Prospective students, whether in karate (including weapons arts) or gong fu (kung fu) (including taiji/tai chi only), are welcome to contact him at dan@dandjurdjevic.com or via the Academy’s website.
A prolific writer, Dan is the author of the award-winning blog “The Way of Least Resistance” as well as two upcoming books “Essential Jo” and “Understanding Karate”. He has a number of other projects “in the pipeline”.
Dan is also the founder and administrator of the Traditional Fighting Arts Forum – a place where serious traditional martial artists can discuss technical, historical and philosophical matters pertaining to traditional martial arts of all kinds.
Dan is committed to teaching the traditional martial arts not as a sport, but as a method of practical self defence, a holistic platform for health, fitness and well-being, and a means of artistic cultivation and expression. He feels that traditional martial arts such as karate, taiji (tai chi) and other gong fu (kung fu) styles are ideally suited to this purpose.
