Marwa Bernstein

Title: Founding Member

Position: Rep Company, Faculty Member

Classes Taught: MOVEMENT AND DANCE & PILOGA!

Education: As an actor she trained at HB Studios primarily with Rose Arrick (who was also her mentor and coach until her death in 2008) and Austin Pendleton, and in Los Angeles with Sally Kirkland. Her formal dance training began in Cape Town, South Africa, with Yvonne Adkins, formerly of the Royal Academy in London. Her training in the United States began at the School of the Chicago City Ballet, where she was a trainee with the company and continued at the Salt Creek Ballet and in the trainee program with the Joffrey Ballet. Academically she is very proud to have been home-schooled through high school and to have attended Sarah Lawrence College (New York)

Professional Experience: Marwa has been a professional performer for most of her life, first as a ballet dancer and second as an actor. She moved to LA from New York and is so happy to be finding an artistic home with XRT. As an actress Marwa’s LA/CA. credits include ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ at La Jolla Playhouse, ‘Blind Spot’(film) with Sally Kirkland, ‘Two and a half Men’ (TV) and The Dixie Chicks video ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’. New York credits include ‘Performance’ at Here for the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, ‘Emilia Galotti’ at BAM, Zenobia (World Premiere) for Princeton Summer Stage, ‘Edward II’ for The Queen’s Company, ‘3D World’ at the New York International Fringe Festival, The off - Broadway productions of ‘Necropolis’ and ‘Artists and Anglers’, the NYC Lysistrata project and a brief cameo in Aquila Theatre’s ‘A Very Naughty Greek Play’. As a dancer Marwa has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Lincoln Center, Ballet Ireland, Lexington Ballet and the Opening Ceremonies of the ‘98 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan among others. In 2001, she and her sister, Bobby, were the only two Americans chosen to dance in a gala performance at the Lincoln Center with Rika Yu Oriental Ballet. She has been a guest artist and or worked with such notable individuals as Gelsey Kirkland, Melissa Hayden, Maria Tallchief, Diana Cartier, Wes Chapman, Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Belotserkovsky. As a dancer some of Marwa’s favorite roles include: Giselle (Giselle), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Firebird (Firebird), Sugarplum Fairy (Nutcracker), Marie Taglioni (Pas De Quatre) and the soloist role in Trey McIntyre’s Square One. In addition to performing, Marwa has always had a love for teaching and has taught movement, acting and dance at HB Studios, Lee Strasburg Institute (NYC), American Ballet Theatre and The New York Film Academy (NYC, Princeton Universal Studios and Florence, Italy). She is especially excited about helping actors perform with their whole bodies and to that end has developed a movement class that incorporates movement, acting and aspects of dance to help the actor speak with their bodies as well as their voices.

She has also worked as assistant to the Artistic Director for Rika Yu (Rika Oriental Ballet), Rosemary Miles and Xijun Fu (The Lexington Ballet) and choreographed shows for Off Broadway productions. However her best achievement to date is her daughter Luciana with her husband David.

What the XRT Means To Me…: I joined XRT because it is important to me as a performer to be part of a company and have an artistic community around me. Our vision of being a place for an actor to come home to is much needed in today’s artistic climate and I hope we will continue to grow our community for many years to come.

Why I Do What I Do…: Teaching has gone hand in hand through all my years as a performer and I think it is part of our duty to further our craft by mentoring the next generation. I teach movement because coming to acting from the dance world has given me a eye for the actor who speaks with their whole instrument. I love to see the transformation of a good actor into a good actor who is alive from head to toe.

Marwa as Rosie in "Even Yet, Its Mighty Daring Sings"