About Sifu Dennis Dereje

Sifu Dennis has combined almost three decades of martial arts with his certifications to create a very “new” way of learning Kung Fu. Following in his teachers footsteps, Sifu Dennis will continue to learn from the few living grandmasters to preserve and pass on these great treasures.

At a very early age, an unlikely source sparked his initial training; movies. At eight years old he was practicing the kicks of his idol Bruce Lee, taking what he saw in the films and doing his best to mimic the same motions because practicing martial arts in a school was illegal in his native country of Ethiopia. His Uncle Bouch, who taught him Kung Fu,  studied with a disciple from traditional Kung Fu system, as well as his uncle’s friend. He avoided a lot of problems having studied Kung Fu from an early age.

At 15 he and his brothers moved to the United States. There he started his first formal training with Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido and Tai Chi – Sun Moo Do – first school in SF. Sifu’s first teacher was hesitant to work with Dennis as a self-trained student, but Sifu Dennis quickly rose to the top of the class with his dedication and practice, and had proved to his teacher he was worthy of being an understudy.

Soon after, Sifu relocated to Arizona where he took up kickboxing. All of his martial arts training began to combine when he started practicing Kung Fu exclusively. While other forms of martial arts had seemed to always be missing a component, Kung Fu was the perfect culmination of mind, body, and spirit. Kung Fu was not just the missing piece – it was the complete puzzle.

Finally Sifu’s personal life took him to Miami where he studied various kinds of Chinese martial arts at the traditional kung fu school (Kung Fu Connection where he met Kenny Chin, his Qi Gong teacher) and studied various kinds of Northern and Southern Shaolin systems for a period of 10 years. His studies also included simplifying Yang Style Tai Chi.

In 2006, he met grandmaster Chen Yun Ching, son of the legendary Chen Pan Ling, at a seminar in his 2nd Kung fu school, Chung’s Kung fu and Tai Chi Academy, where he spent 3 years studying short hand styles of Hakka Kuen and introductory to the 3 main internal arts.

In 2009 he went to Taiwan and learned the complete system Ling Yun Pai martial arts. This form of martial arts was passed from father to son, and finally to Sifu Dennis. He is a 1st generation indoor disciple, an elite honor given to only a select few masters around the world.

His training however, is never complete. He now trains with Grandmaster Wei Lun Huang in Miami, who is a world renowned teacher known for his great skill and energy work, around the world. Master Huang’s lineage continues through his teaching and deep knowledge of internal martial arts which has been developed since childhood. His rehabilitation and conditioning skills set him apart from other teachers.  Addis Kung Fu hosts some of Master Huang’s workshops and seminars which include Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Ba Gua, Liu Hu Ba Fa and Hsing-I.

Sifu Dennis also studies under Master Kam Lee – for Chen Style Tai Chi and taking additional Leadership Classes, who has acted as a mentor to Sifu Dennis. Master Kam Lee has been practicing since 1973 and is an acupuncturist and Chinese Doctor who is a 4th generation Wuzuquan Kung Fu practitioner and a 20th generation Chen Family lineage holder (12th generation Tai Chi) under the tutelage of Grandmaster Zhu Tiancai.  He is a 7th Degree Black Belt and a gold medalist in the IJOTC.

Sifu Dennis travels around the world for Kung Fu, often visiting his Sifu in Taiwan, and to judge Kung Fu competitions in the traditional martial arts circuit. He was recently named as an International chief Judge in the ICMACWorldwide Circuit.