Business Beat: The road to self-improvement may begin at Five Center Place
David Rix and his wife, Joann Price-Rix, renovated the entire building at 5 Center Place but couldn't remove the former bank's vault. photo by Roland Dorsey |
by Amanda Ripley
By the time David Rix was 17, he had developed, as he puts it, "a nasty attitude." A St. Helena native, Rix had become known as a knife fighter in a gang and spent time boxing in Highlandtown gyms. One afternoon, he found himself in a bit of an altercation.
A man about 60 years old asked Rix to find another mat on which to practice. Rix, not feeling much like moving, went to assault the older man - but twice found himself flat on his back across the room. On his third try, Rix pulled out a knife. Before he knew it, Rix was on his back yet again and the older man had the knife to Rix's throat.
"You're holding the knife wrong," the man said.
Rix and his wife, Joann Price-Rix, find the story slightly embarrassing. But not many local business owners can lay claim to such a tale as the beginning of it all. And these days, David Rix is on a more peaceful path.
He has dedicated his life to the study and teaching of self-hypnosis, meditation, parapsychology, self-defense and the martial arts. The older man in the gym became Rix's teacher that day, and Rix has been studying ch'in-na, a Chinese grappling art, ever since. He and his wife teach their own form of ch'in-na, among what seems like a million other things, at Five Center Place Learning Center LLC, a business they opened in February 2002.
"We didn't want to be known for opening another martial arts school in Dundalk. We wanted to be known for all kinds of educational training," Price-Rix said Monday. "We really emphasize people learning how to protect themselves and take care of themselves. We're trying to offer diversity to the community."
Rix and his wife, married for less than a year but business partners for much longer than that, certainly aren't new to the types of services they offer. They started out on Holabird Avenue in 1963 with the Defenders Club and there specialized in martial arts. The business moved from location to location and expanded in 1970 to include Psychic Explorers on Poplar Avenue, where the couple taught parapsychology, extrasensory perception (ESP), meditation and hypnosis. Rix has taught similar classes at Dundalk Community College and the University of Maryland, he said.
"Over the years we have rented places and we decided to take the opportunity to find a real home," Price-Rix said. That home, a former bank, has been renovated and its three floors include classrooms, studios, changing rooms, storage areas, offices, a meditation and resource room, a kitchen, a conference room and a gift shop featuring Celtic, gothic, Asian and mythical items.
There isn't much at Five Center Place (it's not just a name - you'll find them across the street from Heritage Food Market) that a person in the market for self-improvement wouldn't be able to find. Karate, Kenpo karate, self-defense for adults, Tai Chi Chuan, self-hypnosis, meditation and parapsychology are just some of the offerings. The classes are taught by Rix, Price-Rix and other clubs, organizations and individuals."It teaches you how to use your mind to a fuller capacity," Rix said. "We teach you how to identify yourself, how to overcome obstacles."
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