Over the past 25 years I have been teaching acting classes, I have come to realize the enormous benefits an acting class can give to any human being from any walk of life. You do not have to be an actor to take my acting classes in Toronto. I say “my” acting classes because there are many acting classes that are only offered to working actors or people who are wanting a career as an actor. I believe there needs to be a place to go for anyone who needs an expressive outlet – to get all the amazing benefits an acting class can offer. Over the years I have built that place right here in Toronto.
“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
Kurt Vonnegut
ACTING AS A SACRED ARTFORM
First and foremost, Acting is a sacred art form that connects our spirit and soul to something greater than ourselves. More on that in another article here.This blog however, will focus on the practical gains acting classes can offer to someone interested in acting or just starting out as a beginner actor. Many people are working long hours at a corporate job that leaves little room for creativity. Or, they have simply lived their lives without any creative expressive outlet. They have begun to feel their soul needing something more, something deeper.
My acting students in my Toronto acting classes tell me that they have grown so much in their lives or have experienced real healing in my acting classes. They have reconnected with an aspect of themselves they only knew in childhood. They have opened in ways they never have before. They have learned to express themselves. They have reconnected with their actor soul.
ACTING AS A JOURNEY TOWARDS SELF KNOWLEDGE
Acting, especially for non actors and beginner actors is a journey towards self-knowledge. It teaches you to live in the present moment. It teaches you to open yourself up to life and experience the richness of feeling alive. Acting leads you into your body and out of your head. It teaches you to breathe. To listen. To live!
Acting intimately connects us to one another as human beings. It teaches us how to have compassion for ourselves and others. It teaches us how to communicate with each other and how not to communicate. It helps us understand why some relationships work and why others do not.
CHARACTER AND ACTING
As an acting student playing a character in my Toronto acting class you learn who you are and who you could become. Characters free you from the limiting beliefs of who you know yourself to be. They bring you to Wholeness. We all long to be free, to feel the aliveness of our highest energy, to live a creative life as a creative act. Acting opens that door.
You do not have to be an actor to gain the benefits my Toronto acting classes can give you. You do have to be a soul searcher, a truth seeker and someone who wants to grow through liberation.
Cindy Tanas Actors Studio teaches acting classes for Theatre and Film in Toronto and the GTA, Collingwood and Southern Georgian Bay.