“There are two ways to live your life. One as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~ Einstein
Dance brings me a feeling of alive-ness and infinite gratitude.
Purposeful is a word I would use to describe Marisa. Purposeful in her movement, in the way she lives her life and the way she runs her professional dance company, Infinite Flow Dance. A few weeks before I headed out to LA, I connected with Marisa and we chatted over the phone and established a connection as a starting point to working together. The more we chatted, the more excited I was to learn about her story and to capture her movement. But after working with Marisa, I realized that I had just scratched the surface of knowing her story with our initial conversations. We spent an hour shooting as she danced salsa and even sailed around in her skates, which has recently become a new lifeline for her.
Marisa was my last client for the day, and she offered me a ride back to my hotel, which I happily accepted. We dove deeper into who each of us is, our dance journeys, and how we got to where we are now. This is when I truly learned a lot about Marisa and what makes her who she is as a person and mover. I am forever grateful for that car ride through LA and what it allowed me to learn and share with Marisa. For this work I am creating, it is really important to truly take time to know and connect with each of the dancers I am featuring, and the time I spent with Marisa granted me that understanding.
Marisa is dancer, stroke survivor, speaker, transformative movement experience designer and the founder of Infinite Flow Dance. We spoke about the boundaries she has faced along the way as a dancer, and she shared, “My earliest memory of experiencing anti-asian discrimination was when I was 7 years old. I attended a predominantly white elementary school, and during recess, a group of boys came to me and my Chinese friend Alice, just to make fun of the shape of our eyes. During my teenage years I aspired to become a professional ballet dancer, but I was repeatedly told that my body wasn’t made for dancing. In my late teens, I was sexually assaulted by a ballet teacher who didn’t believe in me and who continuously compared my body to others, and this all added up to feeling like I didn’t belong. In 2006 while in college, I had a stroke which paralyzed me from the neck down. I thought my body was broken and my dance career was over. I eventually recovered most of my mobility and made a comeback to dancing through discovering ballroom dancing, but as I found my groove again, I found myself facing the same challenges: discrimination, body shaming, not fitting the box, and toxic work environments. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2012, I’ve been told on a number of occasions that asians didn’t fit the role of the ballroom or salsa dancer as well as others.”
Marisa exclaimed, “These life experiences of continuously feeling like the “other”, combined with recognizing the lack of disability inclusion in dance and living with PTSD, an invisible disability, eventually led me in 2015 to create Infinite Flow Dance, a nonprofit and professional dance company composed of dancers with and without disabilities, that uses dance as a catalyst to break divisions in humanity while awakening people to their infinite potential. I envision a world without boxes, where every individual enjoys a sense of belonging and is celebrated for their unique
“Dance and movement continues to be a central part of my personal and professional life. Through my work at Infinite Flow, which has a goal to awaken all people to their infinite potential through getting them to face their fears and get out of their comfort zones so they discover their untapped talents and gifts, I was personally inspired to further challenge my mind, body, and spirit to something new, and this led me to skating,” Marisa also shared.
I have always loved to watch videos of skaters flowing through their movement on their wheels. Marisa was no exception to this. I loved capturing her movement as she skated around the studio. A few other key points I want to share about Marisa are, she was recently named 1 of 13 People Magazine “Women Changing the World 2021”, 1 of 9 women leaders “reimagining sport” for the adidas International Women’s Day Campaign 2020, and listed on InStyle Magazine Badass 50 2021. Those are some pretty amazing acknowledgments and there are even more than I listed!
You can follow Marisa on Instagram to keep up with the amazing work she is continuing. Also be sure to follow Infinite flow on Instagram and Facebook as well.
Be sure to follow along on all of the social media platforms for Dance Knows No Boundaries
If you know someone who should be featured in #danceknowsnoboundaries please send me an email at movementinmotionphotography@gmail.com.
