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Chris Mark is a leading role model in the martial arts industry. Having over 8 years of martial art/gymnastics teaching experience, Chris has motivated and inspired youths to push themselves in martial art training. Chris developed the Xtreme Skills Development program, in order to teach people the discipline of Extreme Martial Arts. The program has been set up at various martial arts schools around the Greater Toronto Area such as Sunny Tang Martial Arts, Canadian National School of Wushu, Rampulla’s Martial Arts, Reality Combat Fitness and Hasnem Tae Kwon Do. Chris also is a Business student at Ryerson University; finishing a degree in Finance with a minor in Entrepreneurship. Aside from running the Xtreme Skills Development program, Chris works as a stuntman and actor in the film and television industry; working in such films as Jumper, Love Guru, Forever Fireworks and The Mummy 3. Chris first and foremost passion came in live stage performances with Team Ryouko. To this day Chris still performs with Ryouko as well as choreographs and trains the new up and coming talent.
Achievments - Buisness Finance Major Degree, Ryerson University Chris Mark was born October 15th, 1985 in North York General hospital in Toronto. However most of his life was spent in a small town 2 hours north of Toronto called Huntsville. During Chris’ childhood he was limited to sports and exercise due to a heart condition he inherited when born. At 9 months old, he was in congestive heart failure. He was diagnosed with anomalous origin of the left coronary artery. His heart had suffered extensive damage and he had closed heart surgery with a success rate of 50%. At 9 years old Chris became symptamatic with exertion and required open heart bypass surgery. This was a big turning point in Chris’ life, resulting in steady improvement in heart function each year. By 14 years old Chris decided to join the local Karate school for the purpose of physical exercise. After training for a while, he started competing at provincial tournaments and later went to the World Martial Art games in Kilarney, Ireland in 2001 and received two gold’s and a bronze. Competition is what gave Chris his love for martial arts. At the age of 17 he started getting involved in Extreme Martial Arts, trying to learn moves from the internet and videos. His real extreme martial art training came when he met a group called Team Ryouko. Team Ryouko Chris met Team Ryouko through his older brother James Mark. Him as well as Louis Paquette, Ilan Rosenberg, Jeff Ong, Allen Keng and Emerson were the original members of Team Ryouko. Luckily Chris had the opportunity to train with Ryouko and eventually sub in for a live stage show with them. After he performed in his first show at Chinese New Year’s CNE, he was named an honorary Ryouko member. Throughout his last year of high school and into University Chris performed with Ryouko at many of their shows and decided to take school in Toronto at Ryerson University in order to keep training and performing with Ryouko. In the summer of 2003, Chris was finally named a full Ryouko member. Ryouko has provided Chris with the opportunity to develop Xtreme Skills Development as well as work in the film and TV industry. Xtreme Skills Development Xtreme Skills Development was conceptualized by members of Team Ryouko and first implemented into Sunny Tang Martial Arts Center in the summer of 2004. Chris began teaching at Sunny Tang alongside members of Ryouko developing fundamental techniques of Xtreme Martial Art s. After 3 years of teaching XSD at Sunny Tang, Chris took over the XSD program and expanded it into 4 different locations around the GTA. Stunts/TV In Chris’ last year of University he got his first big break in the stunt industry. He was asked to work on the new Samuel Jackson and Hayden Christiansen film Jumper. This led to more opportunities in the film industry, as the following year he worked on such films as The Mummy III with Jet Li and Love Guru featuring Mike Myers. He got his first acting role in the summer of 2007 when auditioning for the lead role of Joy Yang on the Canadian Chinese production Forever Fireworks. To this day Chris still trains to push his body to the physical limit in XSD and other aspects of martial arts. He has obtained a 2nd degree black belt in WTF Tae Kwon Do, as well as a Blue Sash in Wushu Kung Fu. He believes that there is no one style of martial arts that is superior to another, but that you must train in different disciplines in order to obtain your unique style to reach your true potential.
copyright 2008 Chris Mark |
About Chris Mark