Dorothy Sarnoff, The Original Lady Thiang dies
Dorothy Sarnoff (1914-2008)
Sarnoff was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1914 and graduated in the Cornell University class of 1935. She became an accomplished singer on Broadway, television, and in Opera, starring in "The King and I" with Yul Brynner. She passed away at 94 on Saturday December 20th, 2008.
Push On a Building
This technique is from the book Never Be Nervous Again by Dorothy Sarnoff. Ms. Sarnoff recounts a time she was suffering from a case of nerves while backstage, about to perform in “The King and I” with Yul Brynner.
She noticed that Yul Brynner was aggressively pushing on a wall, as if he wanted to knock it down. When asked why he was doing that, Mr. Brynner replied that it helped calm his nerves.
It turns out that this behavior isn’t as strange as it sounds. Pushing on a wall creates lots of tension in lots of muscles. When you stop pushing, the release from all this tension can be quite relaxing. The sudden sense of relaxation of the body can be perceived by the mind as the reduction of anxiety and stage fright.
Sarnoff Squeeze
The Sarnoff Squeeze is a modification of what Ms. Sarnoff learned by pushing on walls.
Sit down in a straight-backed chair. Hold your rib cage high, without locking into a ramrod-straight military position. Incline slightly forward. Put your hands together out in front of you, elbows akimbo, with your fingertips pointing upward. Push your palms together so that you feel an isometric, opposing force in the heels of your palms and under your arms.
Softly hiss like a snake. As you exhale the sss, contract the rectus abdominis muscles, the muscles that lie below the ribs where they begin to splay, as though you were rowing a boat. If it feels like someone is tightening a corset on you, you’ve got it. Relax the muscles as you finish exhaling, then inhale slightly.
Her stage and screen credits include "Rosalinda," "My Darlin' Aida," "Tosca," "Magdalena," "The Ed Sullivan Show," a USO show in Germany, and Super Club Acts at the Pierre Hotel's Cotillion Room and the Americana Hotel's Bal Masque Supper Club.
She founded "Speech Dynamics Inc.," a speech consultancy firm, and held speech cosmetics classes in New York City.
As a consultant she aided Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin with a public speaking engagement and in 1980 she assisted President Jimmy Carter with his State of the Union Address.
Here are a few websites of Dorothy Sarnoff
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0153408.html
http://www.ibdb.com/image_gallery.php?prodno=1935
http://www.infomarketingblog.com/images/Dorothy_Sarnoff_thumb.jpg
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/milestones/popups/p1951.html
http://www.last.fm/listen/artist/Dorothy%2BSarnoff/similarartists
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