I have been asked what my gifts are. A gift is something one is born with or given. The gifts I am most grateful for are my compassionate heart and my ability to accept people as they are. I feel deeply. I love my diverse students sincerely and equally. I also have very strong boundaries around my teacher/student role, and I never befriend my students outside of that role. As a matter of fact, I was teaching my students about boundaries long before the “me too” movement. This keeps things clear and helps my students trust me. I create an extraordinarily safe space, so each and every person feels supported, connected, seen, and heard. From time to time, I hear from former students 10, 15, or 20 years later. They sometimes come back to class, or they just want to connect and tell me how much my work has impacted their lives and how they still use the tools they’ve learned.
“Ten years ago, I met Cindy Tanas for the first time. As an acting teacher, she has so much love, talent, wisdom, and respect for humanity. I will be forever grateful to have been a part of this acting studio built from a pure heart; to be witness to the magic she has created behind the doors year after year. Cindy is the most gifted and compassionate acting teacher/director I have ever come across. She loves every character and human unconditionally and has taught us to give a voice to those that cannot speak, allowing only truth to unfold. She has touched hundreds of actors/beings throughout the years who have walked through the doors of Cindy Tanas Actors Studio. We are all better human beings, not just actors, and I thank you for that.”
I’m a deep diver and a truth seeker, another gift I’m grateful for. Depth is my middle name. I never take a student anywhere I haven’t been. And I’ve been to very deep places in my own personal therapy, as well as in my experiential background and training in groups. I went deep inside and began to really face and feel my own deeply repressed emotions. I faced and confronted my shadow. I raged out from my pelvis, I wailed with grief from my heart, and I surrendered to the terror in my belly. I began to understand that the soul lives in the body. And we must reconnect with our bodies if we are to channel from soul. I also began to understand how blocked we are from our bodies, how the mind interferes, and how the actor would never be able to channel from the soul unless the mental and emotional (body) blocks were addressed in their own life as human beings. I knew I had to help actors work through their blocks, rather than struggle with them. I had to teach them to drop into their bodies and reconnect with their wounded souls.
“The experiences you will have in Cindy’s classes are unlike any other. I would liken her actor’s instrument class to a rebirth. I have never in my life been so challenged to confront myself and my deepest issues. You will come face to face with your darkest of truths and experience the purest love. Her studio is unlike any other in the city. There is no judgment, no cruelty, only guidance through the toughest of loves. Once you step in, you feel safe to just be. The love and compassion Cindy brings with her fills up the studio space and her students, and I can truly say that I have never felt so safe to be so exposed.”
I would say one of the greatest gifts given to me is my ability to lead and to create. I have been leading since I was a child. I used to create dances and imaginary plays and lead the children on my street, putting on shows for my neighbourhood. My little friends would drop into my backyard daily to ask, “What are we going to do today, Cindy?” I can bring a group of adult strangers together and give them a powerful experience that can sometimes be life changing. I have a unique ability to see how a modality seemingly outside of the acting world might work in my teaching and coaching. I integrate approaches like shamanic journeying, archetype journeys, sub-personalities or parts work, bioenergetics, mindfulness and embodiment, grounding, and imaginative visualization. I have created many unique exercises that address different aspects of the actors’ process.
“Two quotes I recently read sum up Cindy’s teaching for me. “True leaders create more leaders, not followers”, and “The meaning of life is to give away your gifts.” Cindy Tanas role models these two approaches at her studio. As an acting teacher, she empowers you to own your talent and your work and become your own teacher eventually, to listen and trust yourself so you can give yourself what you need to do your work. She gives you countless acting tools to use if you don’t know how (like me when I started here). Cindy gives so much of herself to every student in every class, and everyone in her class knows they are privileged to be receiving all that she gives as an acting teacher. So, they step up to bat. They’re able to go to places inside they haven’t been before because of the safety and holding Cindy creates in class.”
I have a profound gift for seeing and wisdom. Part of this is simply life experience and years of practice. It’s really the gift of intuition, to be able to see deeply into another human being and help them reveal what needs to be revealed in order for them to grow into their aliveness, consciousness, and creativity. Along with this comes a deep wisdom that knows when to lead and when to follow and how to approach each unique individual – because everyone needs something very unique to them in any given moment. I know when to take them further in their process and when to pause until next time. Because of the power this gift brings, I see this as an extraordinary responsibility.
“Cindy is able to create a space of trust and acceptance, really unlike any other I have encountered before. In only a few classes, I have felt comfortable enough to open up and be very vulnerable with people I have just met. From her classes, I have gained immense value not only in terms of my goals as an actor, but also for my life as a whole.”
“Cindy teaches with unmatched compassion, love, and wisdom. She has the most wonderful gift of articulate, practical intuition that can translate the ephemeral and the ineffable into potent, tangible reality. I’ve witnessed nothing short of miracles in her classes.”