On the Court of North Carolina, in the shade of a sparse group of towering trees, eight students channel their inner strength.

Standing in a semicircle, they move their hands, feet and bodies in accordance with their teacher, Xiaoqin Wu Turner. She demonstrates how to properly arrange their feet, bend their knees, move their bodies. She pushes against their hands to make sure they have composed themselves in the correct position — if they remain upright, feet planted solidly on the ground, they are standing properly.

But these aren’t the customary students. In fact, many are professors.

“I wanted to learn something new — and I did,” Gene Melton, an English professor, said. “It combines both exercise and the intellectual.”

These students are enrolled in the Confucius Institute’s “Lunch Time Tai Chi” course, a 12-week program developed to introduce the N.C. State community to Chinese culture and the philosophy of Chinese medicine.

“We want for people to be aware of their energy flow in their bodies and to use that energy properly,” Turner said. “We want to teach how the universe’s energy transfers to human energy.”

Turner said her students will learn how to properly align their bodies so they can better channel their internal — not muscular — strength.

“I’m teaching them how to maximize their energy for the best effect of any body movement,” she said. “How to push, how to make a move, what the right posture is.”

But tai chi, according to Turner, isn’t just about realizing one’s strength. The exercise can improve health in those who believe themselves to be physically weaker than others.

“When they do tai chi, they can say, ‘Now I know I’m so strong — I’m not that weak person I thought I was,'” she said. “It gives them confidence and improves their physical, mental and psychological health.”

This art form isn’t like other Chinese exercises, such as karate, she said. While both are traditional forms of self-defense, tai chi promotes longevity.

In addition, tai chi’s movements and steps are extremely slow-paced — it is imperative, Turner said, her students coordinate their movements with their breathing.

“It’s not just something old people do,” Turner said. “It’s really hard to do it slow. That’s the value of tai chi art — it focuses on external muscle.”

And tai chi, she said, doesn’t just strengthen her students mentally and physically. It provides a form of healing and an understanding of one’s own movements.

“It made me more aware of my position in space,” Melton said.