Hey Jacqueline,
How are you? Thanks so much for the article and interesting information. I agree totally with your posts and spending that much money. I hope that she did it for herself and to improve business prospects and not for any other reason. Here is another article about the course she took. I think her teacher is using her to boost business. I wonder why she took so long to spill out to the media.
News - The actor who taught Mary to be a princess.
By KATE COX.
837 words
10 November 2002
Sun Herald
16
English
(c) 2002 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. Not available for re-distribution.
Sydney real estate agent's six-week course to royalty
JUST weeks after Mary Donaldson met the Crown Prince of Denmark she enrolled for an extensive deportment course in the eastern suburbs.
She told organisers she was taking the $1,195 six-week course called StarQuest because she "felt that life was passing her by and she had to do something to shift it".
Two years later, the former Sydney real estate agent is living in a $7,000-a-month apartment next door to the Palace of Amalienborg and is rumoured to be marrying the handsome Prince Frederik in May.
If she does, Starmakers agency owner Teresa Page can take some of the credit.
Four hours a week, for six weeks, Ms Page taught the law graduate, now 30, how to walk into a room, turn, stand and shake hands. She learnt to "embrace the spotlight, develop a new self-image, set extraordinarily high goals and manifest dreams".
"Mary wanted to change and she wanted to change her life," said Ms Page, an actor and model who has been conducting the course, now called Supermodel Skills Training, for four years.
"She was definitely on a path of self-development."
Ms Donaldson, who had just completed a creative writing course at the Roland Fishman Studio in Bondi Junction, was a popular student in the StarQuest course.
"She's charming, she's intelligent, she's articulate. She's very switched on," Ms Page said. "She said she didn't like the camera and didn't have any good photos of herself."
In a series of course videos, obtained exclusively by The Sun-Herald, Ms Donaldson is at first shy and nervous, but eventually looks confident and poised. Over the course of the filming, she lost 5kg.
"She really transformed," said Ms Page.
Ms Donaldson enrolled in the course five weeks after meeting, and partying with, the Crown Prince at the Slip Inn bar during the Olympics. They are said to have connected via a mutual love of horses and fitness.
Ms Page was soon to discover just how much her student had learnt. A year later, after the popular prince had made several visits to the harbour city, the romance was outed by Dutch media. Ms Donaldson then quit her real estate job and moved to be by his side, taking a job with Microsoft in Copenhagen and lessons in the Danish language, culture and etiquette. "It was amazing," MsPage said. "This girl had just finished my course, and there she was in the paper. She was really camera-shy and now she's always in front of the cameras and walking in front of the crowds. She's always being looked at by people."
The 34-year-old Prince Frederik has a political science degree from Harvard, is a former Navy SEAL and enjoys sailing, running marathons, diving, parachuting, skiing and flying planes. He will become King Frederik X of Denmark, the sixth member of the House of Glucksborg in the world's oldest kingdom.
He has stated his intention to marry a commoner rather than a blue blood, and both the Queen and the Danish people have apparently given his girlfriend, a former Tasmanian, their enthusiastic approval.
THE DONALDSON VIDEO: FOUR STEPS ON THE PATH TO A MODEL LIFE
CREATING AN IMPACT
With walking and stance the most important thing is alignment. "Body movements are the language of confidence." Ms Page also instructs students in beauty, health, nutrition, relaxation, concentration and rejuvenation. "Deportment and beauty is an aspect but I'm not into perfection. I'm into bringing out people's individual characteristics and traits. Our individuality is what makes us interesting."
CONFIDENCE, COMMUNICATION
"Confidence comes out of preparation. My philosophy from having worked in the industry for more than 20 years is to assist people to bring out the personality traits that make that person unique. Students visualise being on stage, dancing in front of an audience and speaking for a crowd. I taught her confidence, understanding yourself and your psyche and planning for the future, as well as relaxation techniques and tools to deal with fear and uncertainty. All about living in the unknown and working in the unknown."
POSING FOR PHOTOS
"The most important aspect of posing is your energy. Enhance it. It's really subtle but powerful, it makes a big difference. That's what star quality is." Ms Donaldson was so happy with her portfolio of pictures that she requested another photo session. But Ms Page couldn't fit her in, due to acting commitments. "She especially loved this picture. She said it was the best she's seen of herself."
STAR QUALITY
"One main thing is overcoming the inner critic that says you are making a fool of yourself. Mary loved this idea of living in the unknown. The unconscious and irrational aspect of what we don't know is going to happen, manifesting or creating bigchanges."
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