ABOUT NITA ARPIAINEN
 

Nita Arpiainen is is an actor and acting coach, yoga teacher, health and life coach, EFT Tapping practitioner and the founder of Actors Academy Finland. In her previous careers she has been a professional snowboarded and also worked as a TV presenter and producer. 

Nita's deep passion and curiosity for acting, learning and personal growth is the underlying motivation for AAF to come alive. The vision for AAF was formed while Nita attended numerous acting schools and workshops in London at the Actors Studio, Giles Forman Acting Studio, City Academy and the Actors Temple to name a few, ultimately falling profoundly in love with the Meisner Technique, and it making a powerful and lasting impact on the way she viewed acting. Nita has been studying the Meisner Technique with various teachers since 2015.

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TESTIMONIALS

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The Retreat was pure magic! I learned that there is no certain feeling that would be right or wrong to the scene. I learned that I do not need to wait for permission or to be controlling my impulses because I think that they are wrong or embarrassing. I should just follow them. The participants were amazing and brave, I learned so much just watching them work. I think I learned that I need to be honest with myself and need to learn to trust myself. There is no point in lying to yourself just to keep others happy. I received some tools to help with that journey. (meditation and yoga) Nita  was pure magic! I enjoyed how free and playful she was. I felt completely safe and respected. The way she was teaching and pushing the participants to excel was amazing to witness. 11/5. I would definitely recommend this. Go and experience the magic.

- Saara

I loved the retreat. For me it was fabulous. It was so much - and more - than I expected it would be. For me personally, in addition to getting introduced to some of the basic skills of acting, this was profound inner work that really touched me deeply in ways that I wouldn't have expected. This workshop assisted me on many levels to be present, to be in the now, with myself and the other. I found Nita to be an excellent coach, guide and teacher. She held an amazing space. Not only for me as an individual, but for the group of us. Her skill in helping to bring me to where an actor needs to be: which is in the present, which is being in touch with their feelings, and observing where is the other - the partner with whom I was acting. She was excellent in coaching and guiding this dynamic that happened between the people in the exercises. I knew I was going to be pushed beyond what was comfortable and I didnt know what a profound deep positive effect this would have on me but here I am - with skills that I’m going to be using my whole life. I would absolutely recommend this retreat to others and for many other reasons in addition to acting. A full 5 stars.

- Billy

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Actors Academy Finland and Nita are one of a kind. Full of purpose, full of drive and dedication for the greater good and for the greater opportunity of how we get to represent real presence, to being present to one another’s beauty, to one another’s joy and light for the world. The way Nita holds space if magical. She has a very skilled and attuned way of allowing oneself to really bring the best version of truth, integrity and honesty for the purpose of one’s true personal transformation.
- Eric Balance

The retreat was very powerful and Nita is an amazing space holder. As individuals, and as a collective, we were given support and nudges to unfold and offload in many ways. The group was lovely, dynamic, fun and also very loving and respectful.

It is a fantastic, intense program I would recommend to anyone whether they're into acting or not. It is a gift I am grateful I was able to receive.
- Elodie Lefebvre

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Having worked with many acting coaches and within different establishments before coming to Actors Academy, I cannot but to praise the atmosphere of safety and growth Nita has created here. Often the necessity of trust within the space and between you and your coach is underestimated, but here it is in the core of everything. This to me, is what makes the difference. At AAF and with Nita you don't just learn useful tools as an actor, you learn to harness the full potential of you. And you do this knowing you are safe to take either small steps or huge leaps on your way, knowing she's got you if you can't seem to find where to land. In addition you are encouraged to find your joy within all this, find your why. I for sure found both. I have grown immensely as an actor, and as a human here and would highly recommend it for everyone.

- Suvi, actor​

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I was shaken in the best way possible by Nita’s workshop. I learned so much about myself as a performer and it opened for me an entirely different way to approach the craft of acting. Even with a group of persons that I had never met before I felt safe, connected, and free to explore my capabilities as an actor. I would so recommend this workshop to anyone and everyone! Even if you are not an actor, it is a way to tap back into the humanness of the self. FIVE STARRRRZZZZ!
- Marja, actor

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I thoroughly enjoyed working with Nita. She was a very patient, compassionate coach. Working with her was intensive and challenged everyone to be brave and open to the unknown depth and dynamics of our rich inner life. Nita made sure that we felt safe and supported in doing so.  What I find most useful and important in the Meisner training is its focus on the other. By being utterly present with the other, I can be free to feel the emotions that arise from the circumstances,  authentic feelings, not manufactured in my head. I think this sense of inner liberation in authentic human connection is something anyone can benefit from, not just actors. I can only wish that the course like this would be available more often and for longer periods.

- Yuko, actor

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More testimonials here.

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MEISNER TECHNIQUE

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How would it feel like to have the permission to be fully humane and wholesome? How would it feel like to be fully seen and heard as your true self without masks? How would it feel to not fear confrontation or being connected and vulnerable with another?

Ever since childhood and throughout our lives we've learnt to close ourselves from our natural impulses, senses and emotions. We dive back into your true self, especially into your emotional life and its empowering spectrum, through Yoga & Meditation alongside with other tools and exercises. In a variety of group and partner exercises we will learn to express ourselves, truly listen to another and to be present.

The Meisner Technique acting classes will help you to access and express your truthful impulses based on your partner's behaviour, through an exploration of the famous 'Repetition Exercise', 'Independent Activity' and 'Emotional Preparation'. The retreat suits beginners and all levels of Meisner students as you will be paired up with someone with the same experience and you can work on the level you at the moment. 

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The Meisner technique is an approach to acting which was developed by the American theatre practitioner Sanford Meisner. The focus of the Meisner approach is for the actor to "get out of their head", such that the actor is behaving instinctively to the surrounding environment. To this end, some exercises for the Meisner technique are rooted in repetition so that the words are deemed insignificant compared to the underlying emotion. In the Meisner technique, there is a greater focus on the other actor as opposed to one's internal thoughts or feelings associated with the character.​

Sanford Meisner said that his approach to training “is based on bringing the actor back to his emotional impulses and acting that is firmly rooted in the instinctive. It is based on the fact that all good acting comes from the heart, as it were, and that there’s no mentality to it.”

Learn to live in the moment as an actor, and let go of any idea of the result. Learn what it means to really “do” and to respond truthfully to a given moment based on what you get from your partner. Through improvisation, emotional truth and personal response learn to resonate authenticity within a given circumstance. Only in this way will you begin to understand the definition of real acting, which is “to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances”.

“If you want to reach every person in the audience, it's not about being bigger, it's about going deeper.” - Sanford Meisner

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