Hanja Kochansky

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BEST SELLING AUTHOR - AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS - AWARD-WINNING SINGER/SONGWRITER - AWARD-WINNING POET - LEADING HEALING ARTS EXPONENT
MY STORY

I consider myself to be a free spirited, iconoclast,  citizen of the world.

My first journey was that of a refugee fleeing from World-War-II torn Croatia (Yugoslavia then) to Italy in 1943, when I was six-years-old. My next move, at the age of eleven, was that of emigrant to apartheid South Africa.

In the early sixties I came back to Rome to enjoy the Dolce Vita times and to be actress. One of my most fun roles was playing a handmaiden to Elizabeth Taylor in the film Cleopatra.

Later, married to an Englishman, I fully experienced the sex-drugs-&-rock-&-roll era in swinging London. I had a daughter, was a battered wife, a divorcee; worked at the Playboy Club as a bunny croupier and wrote a novel which was bought by 20th Century Fox in 1969. They gave me a generous amount of money and for a while I dreamed of glory, but alas, true to many Hollywood projects, the film never got made.

In 1972 I wrote Female Sexual Fantasies -- the first book in our times on women’s sexual fantasies. It was published in America (where it sold 250,000 copies), England and Australia.

This gave me the financial freedom to realize one of my childhood fantasies, which was to see the USA in a Chevrolet. So I took a long over-land journey (dragging my feisty six-year old  daughter behind me) which culminated with me wearing flowers in my hair in San Francisco. 
 
Later I found the Goddess in a temple in India; and in 1973 met  William Berger: a drop-dead-handsome, non-conforming, charismatic American actor who lived in Rome. Although I knew that if I took him on I would, at some point, be living in a ménage a trois with him, I couldn’t do without him and embarked on some very exciting adventures, which, at times, had me crying tears to my knees.

We had a son, made a commune in Sardinia, and eventually moved to Rome. Here I ran a lively household, wrote songs, worked as an actress in films and performed a one-woman show -- Story of a Life in 21 Songs -- a cabaret where I recounted memories and sang accompanying myself on the guitar.

When I finally could no longer handle my partner’s infidelities I left him, began living a more stable life, and when I discovered I had curative hands I became involved in the healing arts. 

This, however, did not stop me from pursuing my film career and in 1987 I landed a major part in Ettore Scola's, La Famiglia.  The film was selected by the  American Academy of Motion Pictures as one of the best foreign language films of that year, and as the director did not want to go to Los Angeles, the production sent me, and so I got to go to the Oscars. We did not win, but for a moment I revelled in stardom.

In 1991 I was certified as an aromatherapist by the Shirley Price School of Aromatherapy in England, and established the first aromatherapy studio in Rome.  

After over  thirty years in Rome, in 2010 I moved back to London, where I'm having a wonderful new life as I continue to practice my healing skills and write.

My memoir (1937 - 1972) And I'm Still Here is published on Amazon Kindle.

Three of my non-fiction pieces: King of the Street (the story of an English hobo in Rome) and Visiting Judith Malina and Flower Power are published in internationaltimes.it

Via della Scala, a piece I wrote on the street I lived in Rome, can be read on: www.pilgrimjournal.com (advent/Christmas 2010)

From 10 March to 19 June 2011 a photograph of me taken by Ida Kar was displayed on the prestigious walls of the National Portrait Gallery. Never in my wildest dreams -- and there have been some -- did I dream I would be seen in the NPG.
On June 2011 Eddie Mair interviewed me for iPM.
On July 2012 I was on a panel discussing bohemia on the program Off the Page, on BBC Radio 4
In June 2014 artist Geoff Francis shot a video of me: https//www.dropbox.com/s/iydowm6ngeqpb5e/hanja.mov?dl=0


My motto is Gandhi’s aphorism: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I try to walk my talk.

One of my songs:

  HE SAID THAT SHE SAID

He said that she said that I said that they said
And then one day we were no longer friends
Because he said that she said that I didn’t like her
But I do.
Then I told myself I’d never play that game again
But she came and said that he . . . and the story preoccupied me

It’s a rap I cannot beat,
We gossip every time we meet
Whether we sit at the beach or under a tree
What fascinates us is:
What did he say about me?
What did he say about me?

If I ask her will she tell me the truth?
Or maybe by speaking to whatever’s his name
Will bring me right down to the roots
Of what they really think about them 

But, he said that she said that they said that he
. . . No . . .  who was it?
Had something to do with the story of the man who was our neighbour
About whom they told me with the greatest of fervor,
He drinks and he stinks and he’s wife is a bore
And further it would appear he likes to have sex on the floor
Likes to have sex on the floor.

So now, whenever I see him
I remember what they said about him,
And even though I like him a lot
I have to be careful, because they certainly do not.

He said that she said that they said that I said
And then one day we were no longer friends
Because he said that she said that I said that they said
And then one day we were no longer friends

It’s a rap I cannot beat
We gossip every time we meet
Whether we sit at the beach or under a tree
What fascinates us is:
What did he say about me?
What did he say about me?


This song and two others can be viewed on youtube.

You can also download my revised edition of Women's Sexual Fantasies on Amazon Kindle, or buy it as an-ebook from Amazon's Createspace.
The Second Time Around, the sizzling love story between two septuagenarians, can be downloaded on Amazon Kindle.  

 

                                                              
CURRICULUM

Awards
Filo d'Argento Prize for Best Song, Casano Ionio, Italy, 1984
Noxide Poetry Prize, Sicily, 1985
Carro d'Oro Prize for Best Actress in La Famiglia, Salerno, 1986.
RAI  Prize for best Radio Play of 1986 for Un Uomo e Due Donne
 
Publications
Freely Female: Women's Sexual Fantasies, published by Ace Books (USA) 1973; Aim Books (Australia) 1975; Granada Publishing Ltd. (UK) 1977
Encounter. An Interview with Judith Malina, Harper's & Queen, July, 1979
Sexual Mythology, Resurgence, December, 1979
The Group, New Observations, July, 1989
Interview with R. D. Laing, R. D. Laing: Creative Destroyer, 1997
Aromaterapia,  Convivia, October, 1999
Il Tea-Tree,  Convivia, March 2000
Via Della Scala, www.pilgrimjournal.com
Visiting Judith Malina, internationaltimes.it
King of the Street, internationaltimes.it
Flower Power, internationaltimes.it

Films
Storie di Uomini, Donne e Bambini, by Eleonora Giorgi, 2002
La Cena, by Ettore Scola, 1998
Capitano Fracassa, by Ettore Scola, 1988
Una Casa a Roma, by B. Cortini, 1987
Teresa, by Dino Risi, 1987
La Famiglia, by Ettore Scola, 1986
Al limite, cioé, non glielo dico, by F. Rosetti, 1984
Anno Domini, by Stewart Cooper, 1984
Caro Papà, by Dino Risi, 1983
Nanà, by Dan Wallman, 1983
Casanova, by Leonard Nimoy, 1982
Il diritto del Signore, by G. Stegani, 1982
Rosso Sangue, by A. Massacese, 1981
The Saint, 1968
Danger Man, by Patrick McGoohan1966
The Knack, by Richard Lester, 1965
Cleopatra, 1962

One-Woman Shows and Performances (Selected)
Ronnie Scott’s, London, August 1980
Teatro Politeama, Rome, January 1981
Three Horseshoes, London, May 1981
Teatro Goldoni, Rome, May 1982
Red Lion, London, August 1982
Music Inn, Rome, November 1982
Teatro La Maddalena, Rome, April 1983
Boccadon Festival, Cornwall, England, July 1983
Festival di Salerno, Italy, October 1984
Folk Studio, Rome, May 1987

Education & Training
T’ai-Chi Chuan Training, 1996 to present
Watsu Training, 1994-2000
Gestalt Pregnancy Massage, 1995
Bach Flower Therapy Training, 1993-6
Sensitive Gestalt Massage Training, 1993
Diploma, Pranic Healing, 1992
Diploma, Shirley Price Aromatherapy School, London, 1991
Member, International Society of Professional Aromatherapists, 1991
Diploma, ITEC Anatomy & Physiology Theory, 1991
Creative Writing Workshops with Dacia Maraini, Rome, 1983-7
Voice Lessons, Rome, 1987
Acting Workshops with William Berger, Rome, 1981
University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, Psychology, 1957