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Michele Krasnoo:
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Krasnoo began training in tang soo do in 1980 at age 6 and entered her first competition two years later. By the time she turned 13, she was wearing a black belt. Although she would later become skilled at shorin-ryu karate and wushu, she attributes her success to the Korean style: “Tang soo do is a very good martial art because it’s well structured and it’s not complicated with any smoke and mirrors. What you see is what you get. I don’t think I would have excelled in the other styles without my tang soo do background.” Throughout the 1980s, Krasnoo, who hails from Culver City, California, built a name for herself as one of the top Southern California competitors in creative forms. She and her father, Bernie Krasnoo, owner of Sherman Oaks Karate Studio, choreographed her routines. They picked recognizable pieces of music—the themes from the James Bond movies, Rocky, Phantom of the Opera and so on—and hashed over concepts for matching movements and techniques that complemented her skill set and body type. Then they crafted the kata that would tell the stories. The results speak for themselves. In 1993 Krasnoo was named National Blackbelt League Competitor of the Year. She kept the title the following four years. She won two world titles in the North American Sport Karate Association in 1996, the year in which she garnered 76 first-place trophies and 10 grand championships. Over the next few years, Krasnoo expanded her martial arts repertoire. She began competing in Japanese forms, soft-style kung fu and traditional weapons. Many credit her with being the first woman to perform complex kama routines in which the attached cords were used. Making maximum use of her newfound skills, she often entered tournaments and competed in eight or 10 divisions—hence, her tally of several hundred first-place finishes. Throughout her competition career, Krasnoo never rested on her laurels. Her ambition drove her to investigate ancillary endeavors, including acting. Her first foray into films occurred at 16, when she did a short fight scene in a Don Wilson flick. A few roles later, she got her Screen Actors Guild card, shot a ton of commercials, and appeared in numerous movies and television shows. “I always had the acting bug, and the martial arts opened the door for me,” she says. “I was serious enough about it to take acting classes, and that really helped when things started happening. My goal was to be known as an actor who does martial arts, not an actor who gets jobs just because of her martial arts skills, and I’m proud to have accomplished that.” At the end of the 1996 season, Krasnoo retired from competition so she could finish college and pursue acting seriously. In 1998 she earned a bachelor’s degree in film production from California State University, Northridge. Two years later, she accepted an offer to star in a series of training videos. During the interim, she created a martial arts-aerobics video called Kick Butt. The program instantly took off in health clubs, frequently drawing as many as 60 participants to a class. Krasnoo also began teaching seminars on flexibility, kicking and weapons to tournament hopefuls. In the 10 years between Krasnoo’s heyday on the circuit and her induction into the Black Belt Hall of Fame, she grew from a proficient performer to a mature martial artist who’s now dedicated to passing her skills on to the next generation. Black Belt is pleased to name her its 2006 Competitor of the Year. (This profile originally appeared in the December 2006 issue of Black Belt.) |
