So my second teacher, who was a very talented and famous European theatre and TV actress, had this charming aura of a veteran actress, which nearly took your breath away. Before meeting her for the first time in person I was too scared that she will be a diva and that I wouldn't be able to perform the way I wanted to in front of her~~It was so pleasantly surprising to me that she was actually a very normal, approachable and helpful teacher, even though she is a veteran actress, not even for one second did she make me feel uncomfortable....

The first day, she divided us in teams and asked us to perform various "acting exercises", including body movement. She then asked us to improvise little plays. What I understood through her teaching that day is that it is very important for an actor to be able to think on his feet and always unleash his imagination. The exercises and tests she put us through required a lot of fast thinking and a lot of imagination and emotions. The hardest thing she ever asked us to do was to prove we own the stage. She said to us "I will give you the freedom to stand up, come up on the stage and perform anything you want for 3 minutes in order to prove to me that you deserve to be on the stage".  I considered her request to be a truly interesting challenged and so I worked very hard to show off what I wanted~~This teacher added a lot of music during our classes and she also underlined the importance of the body movement and stage presence. She also made clear the differences between acting on stage and acting for the camera. When you act on stage, your acting must be descriptive while in cinema, you don't have to be that descriptive, because the camera is right there in front of you, filming every little one of your movements.

When she gave us theatrical texts to study and perform in front of her, it was really pressing~~Well, I obviously hate studying texts which I find little interest in but as an actor you always have to make the text be interesting. If in cinema the images are what is the most important, in theatre it is the speech of the actors that matters the most. I did pretty well at handling my pre-performance stress~~Learning how not to get stressed out is also very important, because a role can ultimately crush your emotional world into pieces if not handled appropriately~~

On a side note, I have been studying acting since I was 16 and I have already been taught by six different acting teachers (who were all actors and directors), but this teacher is the one that has the biggest impact on me, and I really hope I can receive more lessons from her in the future :D

Lately I have been trying to clear my mind out...After so many acting classes, I really want to give myself the time to understand what I have learnt and what I have gained out of all those classes. Well first of all, to begin with, the first teacher I met was an ex actor and theatre director...The most important lesson I learnt from him is that discipline comes first! An actor must always be focused, always be willing to sacrifice for his role~~Never be late on meetings and/or rehearsals, never be too much of himself, never be stiff and always be versatile~

When he first started teaching, he asked us a question: What is the first thing an actor who stands on a stage does?

The answer was clearly obvious: he is being exposed to the eyes of the audience. An actor must not hold back, must not be too shy in front of the audience...Letting yourself to be free will definetely make your performance come out more natural and more beautiful.

Another thing  this director said, which I kept it in my heart was that "we must be sure we want to be an actor". On our last class together, he seemed to let his guard down and stopped looking that strict. He just looked at us (acting students) and said "Just ask yourself, are you willing to expose yourself in such a huge way? Acting is exposing. If you consider this a stupid thing, unimportant and ridiculous, then I highly recommend to you that you stop acting right now" I immediately questioned myself if I really have the strength to expose myself the way every stage actor does. Can I do this? Am I too shy? Do I really think acting is all that great? I soon realized that acting is a really important part of my life and that there is no way I would ever being able to live in this world without acting~~

What I will remember from my first teacher of this year is that an actor must be disciplined, versatile, passionate for his work and always reinvent himself~~

I just want to dedicate some time to say my farewell to our 8 Chinese "brothers and sisters" who were shot to death by a Fillipino gunman in the Hong Thai tourist bus in Manila. They went there just to have some summer fun. They were just tourists...Their death was so unfair...I hope they all rest in peace.
My heart also hurts for the devastated families and the wounded people...I really hope they can move on with their lives...I was so angry when I saw pictures of people posing in front of the bus as if it is a tourist attraction and something to be proud of...No matter what, it is the place where people died and no place for souvenir photos...

Rest In Peace Our Brothers...

I really like, love, adore reading books! And since I am nowhere close to being the cool party animal girl type(in fact I love staying at home and being a good girl!) I have read quite a lot of them, from Russian literature to Greek to Japanese and so on so forth. Here is my top five list.

I like this book because it doesn't tire you at all. The places and characters are described to the maximum while the story is really beautiful and enchanting. But the most important thing about it, is that the readers can connect and sympathize with Sayuri (the main character). It is a really captivating book to the point I could barely put it down.
"We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course."

4: The Emperor's Messenger by Karin Naouri
This book is at least amazing. The story is about a swordsman, a loyal guard of the King of China, who happens to be born with a pair of strange blue eyes. It is a story about devotion, about the strength of one's soul and heart. I truly love this book.

3: Daughter of the river by Hong Ying

The autobiography of the writer. As the story unfolds, it becomes more interesting and at the same time we get to take a look at the everyday life of normal people in China years ago. it is a very touching story, especially the part where Hong Ying is having an abortion, I couldn't help crying.

2: OUT by Kirino Natsuo

What could I say about this truly amazing piece of art? Kirino Natsuo really knows how to write!  It is a really unpredictable story, really dark and sensational. The characters are unique, the story telling is fast paced. It is a violent, hypnotic and mind blowing story which mainly focuses on the lives of four ordinary women. I strongly recommend it, it is an out of the world amazingly written book.

1: Wild Swans: Three daughters of China by Jung Chang
My all time favorite book. I could write a whole blog entry about it. I have read it three times and I will re-read it again someday in the future. This book brought me to tears countless times. It is based on real life stories and so we get to know the truth about the period of when Mao Zedong's was a leader. In short I will always heart this book, with the beautiful real life stories, full of love, tears, loss and pain. Thank you Chang Jung for writing this book!


 

Another one of my favorite dancers is Ashley Banjo. He is extremely talented, not just cute and hot (which he surely is). I really enjoy watching Diversity's performances. Diversity, of course, is the street dancing group of Ashley Banjo and I really like them all. Anyways, they are just brilliant!
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL577KJDYNU