MARINA - Welcome to MRK Records

Clad in skin-tight leather and lace, MARINA Kamen struts across the stage at New York City’s trendy Webster Hall, belting out a hard-driving dance tune. As she pumps along to the techno-pop beat, it’s hard to believe that this lithe, high-energy performer in the rainbow-hued wig is 41 years old and the mother of three. Even harder to believe is that she once weighed 200 pounds!

Music and dance always have been a part of MARINA’s life: She began dance classes at age four, added violin and piano at seven and then went on to study opera and violin at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. But a weight problem dogged her every step. As a child, “I was very round — rounder than the other kids,” MARINA says ruefully. “I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 12 years old.”

That didn’t stop her, though, from performing and dreaming of an acting career. “In high school I was cast as the old lady, Nettie, in Carousel. It was so embarrassing!” MARINA admits. “That was the first time it triggered in my head that I didn’t want to go up for fat-girl roles.”

She attended the Hart College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut, on an opera scholarship, but dropped out after a year. “I was a lousy student. I was an entertainer!” At 19, she returned to New York and the endless round of auditions. MARINA again found her extra curves a drawback: She snagged a role in a summer stock production of Grease — but as Jan, the chubbiest of the Rydell High gang. That spurred her to go on a nearstarvation diet. When the newly slim MARINA showed up at rehearsals, the director scolded, “Now I’ll have to shove Twinkies into your mouth on stage!”

As a struggling actress and dieter in the late ‘70s, MARINA found a day job that not only gave her a steady income, but also helped steady her yo-yo-ing figure. She became one of the first instructors at Body Design by Gilda, just as aerobic-dance classes were taking off as the way to lose weight. “I actually got paid for exercising,” she laughs.

But she knew she needed another activity to keep her in shape for a Broadway break. “I couldn’t afford to pay extra classes or to join a gym — who had the money? — so I walked all the time. It was free.

She also discovered a new device that kept her going: the Walkman. “I would always pop my cassettes in, to check what I was going to use for my class. So music and walking went hand in hand for me.”

Not long after, she meet and married Roy Kamen, a recording engineer. In 1987, they started their own TV and radio advertising production company, and she all but stopped performing. “Then I became pregnant with Justin [now 13], and I used it as an excuse to eat. I blew up — I mean, blew up! I’m 5 feet 3.5 inches and, for me, 150 was fat. This was 200 pounds!”