The 61-year-old Gatlinburg resident, Nancy Walker

Nancy Walker is not only winning top awards in the martial arts arena but also winning her battle with cancer.

The 61-year-old Gatlinburg resident was awarded Female Instructor of the Year by the International Isshin-Ryu Association at a banquet in Gatlinburg on Aug. 24. Walker was selected for the honor because of her longtime dedication to the teaching of Isshin-Ryu karate.
The Female Instructor of the Year award was presented to her about a year after Walker was diagnosed with cervical cancer last September.
"I never thought I would have it ever because I was in such good shape," Walker said of her cancer. "But you never know who it's going to choose. That's the scary part of it. My oncologist said, 'How in the world did you ever get cancer?'"
Walker said she endured 25 radiation treatments and four chemotherapy sessions.





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Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi was born on February 9th, 1979 in Beijing, China.
She is one of the best-known Chinese film actresses working today, with a string of Chinese and international hits to her name. She has worked with renowned directors such as Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, Seijun Suzuki and Rob Marshall.

At the age of 19, she was offered her first role in world renowned director Zhang Yimou's The Road Home, which won the Silver Bear award in the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. Zhang further rose to fame due to her role as the headstrong Jen in the phenomenally successful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which she won the Independent Spirit's Best Supporting Actress Award and the Toronto Film Critics' Best Supporting Actress Award.

Her first appearance in an American movie was in Rush Hour 2, but as she didn't speak English at the time, Jackie Chan had to translate everything the director said to her. In that movie, her character's name, "Hu Li" translated from Mandarin Chinese is "Fox".

After this she went on to make Hero with her early mentor Zhang Yimou, which was a huge success in the English-speaking world and an Oscar and a Golden Globe contender. Her next film was the avant-garde drama Purple Butterfly by Lou Zhe which competed at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. She went back to the martial arts genre with House of Flying Daggers, which earned her a Best Actress nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

For her next drama 2046, directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring many of the best-known Chinese actresses (from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland), Zhang as the female lead won the Hong Kong Film Critics' Best Actress Award and the Hong Kong Film Academy's Best Actress Award.

Showing her whimsical musical tap-dancing side, Zhang starred in Princess Raccoon directed by 82-year-old Japanese legend Seijun Suzuki who was honored at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2005, she landed the lead role of Sayuri in the film adaptation of the international bestseller Memoirs of a Geisha. For the film, she reunited with her 2046 co-star Gong Li and with her Crouching Tiger co-star Michelle Yeoh. For the role, she received a 2006 Golden Globe Award nomination.

Zhang has also been known to sing, and was featured on the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack with her own musical rendition of the ancient Chinese poem Jia Rén Qu (The Beauty Song). The song was also featured in a scene in the film.

On June 27, 2005, it was announced that Zhang had accepted an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), placing her among the ranks of those able to vote on the Academy Awards.

In May 2006, Zhang became the youngest member to sit on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival.

In the fall of 2006, Zhang' most recent film was released, a new drama set in the Tang Dynasty of China called The Banquet .

Most recently she provided the voice of Karai in the TMNT movie that was released on March 23, 2007. She has recently finished filming a movie called Horsemen with Dennis Quaid.

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Maggie Q

Maggie Q, born Margaret Denise Quigley (born May 22, 1979), is an American actress and former fashion model. She initially gained fame in Hong Kong.

Q was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to an American father of French, Polish and Irish descent, and a Vietnamese mother. Her parents met while her father was stationed in Vietnam. Maggie is the youngest of 5 children. She has two sisters and two half-siblings from her mother's previous marriage in Vietnam. She still visits Hawaii with her family. After graduating from Mililani High School she travelled to Japan and Hong Kong to earn money as a fashion model. In 1998 she got her first role in a Chinese-language TV series, and she has been acting ever since.

While still relatively unfamiliar to audiences in the United States, she has achieved celebrity status in Hong Kong and elsewhere in East Asia. Because of her non-Chinese heritage, many of her Asian film appearances are in English or dubbed in the Chinese language. Her big breakthroughs into the film world came when she bagged the lead roles in the Hong Kong action thrillers Gen-Y Cops and Naked Weapon, in which she played the sexy but vulnerable martial artist assassin Charlene Ching. She has also played the titular role of Harmony in the German-Singapore telemovie collaboration Das Haus Der Harmonie, opposite leading Singaporean actress Fann Wong.

Recently, she starred in her biggest Hollywood role to date alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III. She played Zhen, the only female member of his elite IMF team. Maggie plays one of the computer-hacking extortionists in the 2007 Bruce Willis action thriller, Live Free Or Die Hard, the fourth film in the popular Die Hard franchise. On August 29, 2007, Balls of Fury opened nationwide in the U.S. starring Maggie as the ping pong paddle-wielding niece of table tennis guru Master Wong (James Hong, who I'm beginning to think is an immortal.)


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Kyra Gracie Links

Kyra Gracie's homepage:
http://www.graciekyra.com/


Kyra on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jkg9ovWh70

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFgDbur4FF8


Interview with Kyra:
http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/11970/



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MMA Clothing Line FightGirl to Release 18 Month Calendar Featuring Ms. Tapout Worldwide

MMA Clothing Line FightGirl to Release 18 Month Calendar Featuring Ms. Tapout Worldwide

Houston, TX, October 03, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Mixed martial arts fans finally have something other than the latest match to get excited about. Official FightGirl, Inc. announces today the release of the super hot 18 month FightGirl calendar.

FightGirl clothing is the premier clothing line for mixed martial arts female fans. The line, developed by Kristie Brown, meets the needs of female MMA fans from around the world. Kristie Brown noticed a lack of comfortable, casual, sexy apparel for women at various MMA events. Soon after the realization, FightGirl was born. The FightGirl brand has been seen at such major MMA events as Cage Rage in the UK, Art of War, and IFC Caged Combat to name a few.

“I noticed that every martial arts event I attended women had nothing distinguishable to wear. These events are a lot of fun, and I wanted my line to offer women something to wear that would add to the excitement of the event and to show our support for this great sport. FightGirl was born.” Explains FightGirl CEO Kristie Brown.

full story here:
http://www.pr.com/press-release/54507



technorati tags:mixed martial arts ,mixed martial art ,mixed martial arts fights ,mixed martial arts fighting ,mixed martial arts news ,female mixed martial arts ,martial arts karate ,martial arts ,martial art ,japanese martial arts ,filipino martial arts ,shaolin martial arts ,chinese martial arts

Tara LaRosa

The Heart of Female MMA
Posted by Joe Newman on 09.27.2007

Tara LaRosa pulls no punches when she talks about the state of female mixed martial arts. The Bodog Fights champ is more than just a pretty face. And she is ready to prove it against anyone willing to step in the ring against her. Are you listening Gina Carano?

She has run through every opponent her organization has put up against her. She finishes her fights in spectacular fashion and many consider her the toughest pound-for-pound female fighter in the world.

And, no, her first name is not Gina.

Tara LaRosa, 29, has the credentials and all-around skills that have pushed her to the top of the female mixed martial arts world. The former collegiate judo competitor and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt from the Royce Gracie school hasn't lost a fight since May 2003.
Full story here



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