DENICE PASKOCSKI BIO

At 2 pounds and 3 ounces, Denice Marie Paskovski was born on November 2nd, 1967 to Donna Molinick and Richard Paskowski in Nanty-Glo, (meaning 'Streams of coal"), a small coal mining town on the outskirts of Johnstown, a once thriving steel town of South-Western Pennsylvania . Her last name is evident of her Polish heritage, with her father's family traced to Krakow Poland . She changed the spelling of her surname for the stage replacing the W is Paskowski with a V. “In Polish, the W is actually equivalent to the American V. People always mispronounce the W as the American sound. So I changed it to a V so it would be pronounced correctly, keeping true to the Polish language,” she adds.

From the age of one, Denice was raised by her mother and her grandparents in a very European household (Rose who was Parisian and Aleck, a hard worker as a coal miner.  

Despite her Eastern European features, Denice is actually one fourth Cherokee Indian. Rose's father was pure Cherokee.  "I'm not sure how their getting together happened... But I am glad and so proud to be one fourth Cherokee. You can see it in my cheekbones, I'm told.  It was actually something pointed out to me several times. They rest very high upon my face for one of Eastern European decent.”

Paskovski hails from the same town (Johnstown, PA) where ALL THE RIGHT MOVES (starring Tom Cruise) was filmed which documented the plight of the people in the heart of steel and coal country USA with the onset of the death of the “mills and mines,” and the movie SLAPSHOT (Starring Paul Newman ). “I was studying ice-skating at that time when they were beginning to set up to shoot the film at the Johnstown War Memorial and I remember seeing production crews hanging around, and many times, our lessons had to be re-arranged for the filming. I was so intrigued and fascinated by all of this! I was in the 4th grade when they shot it and it stuck with me.”

A dream of hers and an ongoing life time work is for Hollywood to come knocking to Johnstown , PA again, this time depicting the 1889 Flood that literally wiped out the entire city due to negligence on up keep of the dam that held the water back above the valley. A storm hit, the dam broke and an 80 foot wall of water came down on the valley and wiped the entire city out. An academy award winning documentary depicting the terrible tragedy was done that visitors will be able to see if they visit the flood museum Richard Dryfuss also narrates another wonderful documentary as well.  The perfect director she says, “Without a shadow of a doubt, is Director James Cameron . (Mr. Cameron, are you out there???) The disaster was on the scale of that of the Titanic, even on a grander proportion because it literally wiped out an entire city. Nothing was left. The pictures are comparable to the aftermath of what Hiroshima looked like. The flood of 1889 was preventable and the result of greed and neglect and arrogance. Because of Cameron's attention to detail, and his intensive research , he is the one director to accurately portray this historic tragedy.”

" Because I was a survivor of the 1977 flood , it is important legacy of mine to be cast in 1889 if my life's work can ever bring this to fruition.”

A strong patriot, Paskovski is a veteran of the United States Army. Her former house in Johnstown was just 9 miles from the flight 93 crash of September 11. Ironically, she now resides on the same street as she did when flight 93 passed over the Johnstown Airport above with orders to land there. This led to a connection and meeting with best selling author Ken Abraham, who wrote the NY Times Best Seller “Let's Roll ” the story of Todd Beamer's wife, Lisa Beamer. After finding Denice's bio also through EXTRASFORMOVIES.COM, Ken was intrigued and contacted her. Since that time, he remains a dominant mentor, and special person in her life. It was their mutual connection with flight 93 that brought them to meet. “I actually mentioned to  Ken about writing a book on 1889. As James Cameron is THE ONE to film 1889, there is no other author in my mind but Ken Abraham to tell the story of 1889. He's got a strong tie to this area as well, and in my heart, I know he is that special one if it is ever to be written.

She also caught the eye of a legend in his own right, Kenneth Hari ( www.hari.com ). Hari has mastered beautiful sculptures, with THE BEATRICE being Denice's most favorite sculpture. Hari is the renowned artist having done portraits to many famed people including Dustin Hoffman, and Earnest Hemmingway. Hari describes her as having traits of a modern day Grace Kelly. She is dedicated to Hari and his work and to this day, he plays a very important role in her life.

Denice chose to keep her ethnic name, Alenka in Carpatho-Rusyn as a tribute and memory to her Carpatho-Rusyn/Slovak grandfather, Alec, who himself was a coal miner. Alec was more than a grandfather; he was the father in her life. Hence, Alenka is the Slovak female form of “Alec.” “MALENICH” is the original spelling of her grandfather's surname, which is traced to the village of Levoca, Slovakia in the present day Carpathian Mountain region that extends into parts of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Ukraine. She was also very influenced by the second mother in her life, her Parisian grandmother whose sense of style and love of the arts is ever present in “Alenka.”

In her craft, she carries with her that same work ethic of steel and pride that is so earnest in her, Denice's grandfather, and to all people of the steel and coal belt of South Western PA. She is proud to share that heritage of the region where she currently resides. Preserving this heritage is also an ongoing work for her.

Paskovski has been featured in the Montgomery Advertiser as one of Montgomery's most fashionable/stylish women and her advice on fashion and beauty often appeared in the Advertiser's Lifestyle section, and was part of the Tim Burton Film, Big Fish filmed on location in Montgomery, Alabama. Most recently, the Fashion Editor of the Johnstown Magazine found Denice thru EXTRASFORMOVIES.COM and was also very intrigued by Denice who will be in the March or April issue of the magazine.

She has also performed as a soprano with the Johnstown Symphony Chorus, an extension of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra (under the direction of Maestro Istvan Jari), and most recently, joined a Shakespeare theater company.  “To be perfectly honest, I really don't know what the intrigue is about me. I'm not trying to be something I am not. To me, I'm just a girl that was born in a small and humble coal mining town, pursuing my passion that was and inside of my heart. Yet, I've been described as having "this poise, and presence" about me.   In all actuality, I'm just your average, and very down to earth and approachable girl. This is why I love and strongly identify with Patrizio Buanne. He is timeless, impeccably dressed out of respect for those who come to see Patrizio. Of all his songs, I love IL Mundo, and the song from THE GODFATHER. He is so in touch with his roots and I am. IL Mundo (The World) is such a beautiful song sung by such a beautiful person inside and out. As he says, it really is about the romance and La Dolce Vita…in other words, the passion of just being so happy to be able to do what you love. I'm so happy he has realized his dream. He is timeless in today's culture of the “instantly disposable celebrity.” I don't want to be that either. Patrizio is not trying to recreate images of the classic American and Italian singers. Patrizio is so real. He's not trying to be anything he's not. He is himself and this inspires me, whole heart and soul. Like Patrizio, this is what I strive for in all that I do, may it be singing, acting, or my poetry. I am just..myself.