Teacher/Mentor/Life Coach – Cindy Tanas is a member of ACTRA, former Chair and member of TAAS (Toronto Association of Acting Studios) and member of Theatre Ontario. Cindy began teaching acting in Toronto and Los Angeles. She has run a highly reputable and successful Toronto acting school for over 25 years. She currently works internationally with actors and non-actors alike.
Cindy has performed as an actor on stage and in films and television and has studied with several eminent acting teachers, including Eric Morris in L.A. (taught Johnny Depp and Jack Nicholson), Michael Shurtleff, and Uta Hagen (taught Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, and Debbie Allen). She is influenced by Michael Chekhov, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Sandford Meisner to name a few – although her approach is uniquely her own. You can read more about Cindy’s approach here.
Cindy’s studies expanded into bioenergetics (grounding, embodiment, releasing blocked emotions and energy). She studied and embodied her studies for two years with the Southern Ontario Society of Bioenergetics and five years with the Integral Healing Group in Toronto. She is a Bioenergetics Coach.
Cindy has experienced and studied somatic experiencing through Peter Levine’s Institute. This practice helps the actor learn to relax their nervous system so the actor can open to emotions and energies that want to move through the body while acting. This approach is also great for any human being’s life.
Cindy has studied and embodied her studies in sub-personalities and archetypes using voice dialogue through Anne Kerr Linden and Donna Quance, as well as internal family systems through the Internal Family Systems Institute. These modalities are used to work with blocks and resistances, as well as teach how to create, channel and embody characters – and help access creativity. She implements these practices to help the actor or layman bring more of ‘themselves’ personally and universally to their lives or character roles. She is a voice dialogue and IFS Coach.
Cindy has also studied meditation and mindfulness in depth – and has developed breathing, relaxation and focusing techniques, as well as physical and energetic freedom techniques. Having taught and performed as a dancer in her younger years, she has developed extensive creative movement and body awareness techniques that she incorporates into her teaching.
Her training and experience give her an in-depth understanding of the psychology and nature of ‘character’ and the human being in the actor or non-actor.
Cindy has worked for over 25 years teaching in the classroom and working privately with individuals to help deal with creative blocks, access physical impulses, emotional and vocal expression – and learn about character and human behaviour as it applies to both the actor or non-actor’s life or creativity. She also works with singers, musicians, dancers or any layman who wants to open up to their own unique creativity.
In addition to teaching, Cindy directs her students in showcases before a live studio audience. Several of Cindy’s students have moved on to have professional acting careers in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, and L.A.