In addition to swimming, strength and endurance training, Bowers’ workout routine for Portman included muscle building exercises such as the bridge series.  This is a series of lifts while lying on your back with your knees bent and toes raised in demi-pointe, lift and lower your hips; first big dips then miniscule, held up by only your right leg, then the left; with your knees pinned together, and then apart.

*Image courtesy of Shape Magazine

The workout continues with dips and push backs held up entirely by your hands and heels as well as barre exercises dipping from relevés into grand pliés. Vogue also mentions that Portman’s trainer, Mary Helen Bowers, meets her clients all over the world and is launching an online studio this month if you want to get in ballerina shape. Have you seen Black Swan and if so, what do you think of Natalie Portman’s transformation for the part?

Along with our sponsorship at AFI Fest 2010, we named Mila Kunis as our first Clarisonic “Empowered Woman of the Year” for her performance in the new film, Black Swan.  We awarded the actress with a $25,000 donation in her name to Look Good…Feel Better, our charitable partner and national program empowering women with cancer to manage their treatment and recover with renewed spirit and greater confidence.

Black Swan stars Mila Kunis as newcomer “Lily” opposite of co-star Natalie Portman as “Nina”, in a thriller of rival ballerinas. Our Director of Cause Marketing, Louis Yaseen, describes Kunis’s performance as one that “required courage, confidence and tremendous inner and physical strength. Ms. Kunis’ intense dedication to taking on the physical and mental demands of her role as ‘Lily’ while stretching her artistry, is a testament to her power, strength and conviction in the face of a challenge. Her inspiring performance is one that encourages and empowers all women to marshal their inner power and beauty to achieve their own dreams no matter what obstacles they face.”

Along with honoring our Empowered Woman of the Year, we rolled out our Limited Edition Hope Mia with a design inspired by Look Good…Feel Better’s campaign of “Hope is Beautiful”. Several celebrity attendees of the festival autographed the new Hope Mias to be auctioned off at a later date with the proceeds benefiting Look Good…Feel Better.

Our dedication to Look Good…Feel Better will continue with our ongoing campaign that includes a donation of fifteen dollars from every Hope Mia sold, five dollars from every Clarisonic Pink Classic and Clarisonic Pink PLUS sold and four dollars from every Clarisonic Pink Mia sold.

Our participation at AFI Fest 2010 was a huge success with partner Look Good…Feel Better and we are pleased to honor Mila Kunis with our first “Empowered Woman of the Year” award with her breakout performance in Black Swan.

Clarisonic took a moment out of the party to present Look Good…Feel Better with a check for $30,000. The total amount to date collected from the “like” campaign on Facebook.

Left: Clarisonic team member Lou Yaseen opens the presentation.

Above: Clarisonic team members present a check to Louanne Roark from Personal Care Products Council Foundation. Look Good…Feel Better is a signature program of the Personal Care Products Council.

The program ended with Jack Gallagher, Clarisonic president, presenting an amazing $500,000 check to Louanne Roark, executive director of Look Good…Feel Better. These funds were raised from sales of Clarisonic PINK products and the Limited Edition Hope Mia.

Left: All the fabulous Clarisonic folks who made the trip down to LA to take part in the presentation   including Dr. Robb.

Look Good…Feel Better will use these funds in a number of ways:

– To serve 50,000 women across the country each year through 1,800 host facilities offering 7,500 group workshops – the most popular program format.

– To offer the women’s program in Spanish to reach the Hispanic audience and eliminate any language barrier to women who need the service

- To serve men with cancer through on-line information and materials

- Teens with cancer are served by the LGFB for Teens program available at 18 sites, as well as online through the 2bMe.org web site

- LGFB has served approximately 600,000 women in the U.S. since the program began in 1989

- LGFB is also available in 19 countries, on six continents. Globally more than 825,000 women have been served since 1989

We cannot say enough about the fabulous work that Look Good…Feel Better is doing to serve women with cancer. It is a great honor to be able to help support such an amazing program.

Stay tuned for more exciting Look Good…Feel Better and Clarisonic updates!

All the events are focused around the Limited Edition Clarisonic Hope Mia in support of Look Good…Feel Better. We are helping to spread the message of this fabulous organization and to raise money and awareness. As part of this support we are encouraging celebs to autograph Hope Mia’s – these units will be auctioned off with 100% of the proceeds going to Look Good…Feel Better. So on Saturday night we took to the red carpet for the premier of Barney’s Version starring Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver and Paul Giamatti.

Outside of Grauman’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood the Clarisonic team received autographs from all of the Barney’s Version cast members including Dustin Hoffman’s son Jake and the film’s director Richard Lewis.

Thank you to all the celebs who have autographed Mia’s so far – we appreciate your support. Stay tuned for more action coming live from the red carpet all week on Facebook, Twitter and here on Sonic Chatter. Cheers!

Barney’s Version takes you on  a ride through the life and memories of Barney Panofsky, a hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, foulmouthed 65-year old hockey fanatic and television producer, as he reflects on his life’s successes and (numerous) gaffes and failures as the final chapters of his own existence come sharply into focus.  See the complete trailer here.