Marwa Bernstein
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 making her home here. Marwa’s Los Angeles credits include Theatre: Much Ado about Nothing at La Jolla Playhouse, My Werewolf (Sidewalk Studio Theatre), Even Yet It’s Mighty Daring Sings, and Anton in Show Business (XRT). Film/TV: Charlie Wilsons War, Love Wedding Marriage (Dermot Mulroney, Dir.), Blind Spot with Sally Kirkland, Two and a Half Men, 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 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.
Marwa 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. Some of Marwa’s favorite dance roles include: Giselle in Giselle, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Firebird in Firebird, Sugarplum Fairy Nutcracker, Marie Taglioni Pas De Quatre and the soloist role in Trey McIntyre’s Square One.
She studied acting 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 Jeffery Brooks and 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)
In addition to performing, Marwa 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 and at XRT in Los Angeles. She has also always had a love for teaching and has taught movement, acting and dance at HB Studios, Lee Strasburg Institute (NYC), American Ballet Theatre, SOCAPA (LA) and The New York Film Academy (NYC, Princeton Universal Studios, and Florence, Italy).
Her best achievement to date, however, is her daughter Luciana, with husband David.
