Martial Artist
- ANECDOTES OF A KUNG FU PRINCESS
Martial Arts has been in my blood since childhood...literally. In fact, all my life! When your father is Dan Inosanto and you were named (Diana Lee) after your Honorary Uncle and first God-father, the Late Bruce Lee (my second god-father figure would be Richard Bustillo)...well, you don"t have much of a choice to sway from your biological & circumstantial fate.
Growing up around the sights, sounds (snap, crackle, pop) and yes, even smells of a martial arts school is a unique world unto it's own. But, I'm not complaining. As a kid growing up, (the only female kid I might point out) I was raised primarily around 99% "masculine" energy, day and night. You see, in those childhood years, right before and after my Uncle Bruce's death, my father had built a gargantuan sized martial arts gym on the quarter acre lot of our home in Carson, California.The who's who of the martial arts world engulf and shape my young world. People from all over the states, and all over the world would come to see my father--and I was usually there at times, an accidental witness to my father's own evolving life force. Some were there to share their knowledge of their unique martial art style and system they were immersed in; my father always keeping an open mind, body and spirit to absorb what knowledge came channeling through to his ears. But most people that came to see my father, were seekers of knowledge themselves, desiring only to be a steadfast, committed student of Dad.Because my father carefully, and patiently, achieved teacher's rank in several styles and systems, one could see how confusing it was for my little girl's ears to hear my father called, "Guro Dan", "Sifu Dan", "Sensei Dan", "Kru Dan" "Master Dan".... So, at times I felt quite odd calling out in class "Hey Dad!" But that would be the uniqueness and privilege of my life with him. I even got creative a couple of times and called him "Sifu Dad"(that didn't last too long.)
What was cool about growing up around such a different world...a world of male energy and male perspective from every walk of life, is that it prepared me to enter other worlds that would be male-dominated, like Hollywood. Like something out of John Gray's famous book, I was getting early lessons in "Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus".
My world of martial arts was the best training ground as a child to help me transcend from actress to stuntwoman to filmmaker. You see, martial arts isn't necessarily about preparing you physically. It is process that can evolve you both mentally and emotionally --the journey within.