Portfolio

The Challenge:  1 in 4 Americans, that is 61 million Americans have a disability.  Disability is the largest minority group, yet disability inclusion is often placed last or forgotten when addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion.  What many people don’t know is, some of the worlds greatest innovations have been born from designing for disability.  The typewriter was invented as a result of a blind woman seeking to write a love letter in her privacy.  Email was invented by a deaf engineer who was seeking a solution to communicate with his deaf wife at a distance.  Inclusion inspires innovation.  What happens when you place disability inclusion first, not last? How do you create a world where differences are celebrated?   How do you create a culture where we each feel we belong?

The Project: Out of my own lived experience of surviving a stroke that left me temporarily paralyzed from the neck down, my body not being accepted as a dancer, and feeling like the “other” in multiple circumstances, I created Infinite Flow Dance.  Established in 2015, Infinite Flow is an award-winning nonprofit dance company that employs disabled and nondisabled dancers with diverse intersectional identities with a mission to use dance as a catalyst to dismantle biases and promote inclusion.  Disabled company members include artists with physical disabilities, deaf, blind, neurodivergent, and other invisible disabilities. Since 2015, Infinite Flow has performed at 150+ events, our videos have reached 80 million+ people online, and we have served 10,000+ youth.  Our partners have included major brands such as Apple, Meta (formerly Facebook), adidas, Red Bull, amongst others, and is a leading voice in the disability advocacy movement. 

TEDx Talk (2022)

Talk delivered Dec 3, 2022 in Los Angeles.
Serving Others Starts with This

This was not the TEDx Talk I thought I was going to give… will not be the last TED talk.

My Role: Producer, Creative Director & Strategist, Choreographer, Live Experience Designer 

The Challenge: How do you connect and engage … (In progress… Shhhhhh… ) 

The Project: Microsoft Flip (previously Flipgrid) is a free and simple, social learning video platform for Pre-K to Ph.D. educators, learners, and families. Leading up to Flip’s biggest event of the year at the annual ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference, Flip had an idea to create a dance lens (an AR filter teaching users a simple dance) as a fun way for educators to express themselves through the Flip platform, and approached me to choreograph the dance, and produce and direct a short video that promotes the new dance lens.

Flipgrid team member & influencer Ann Kozma and 20+ local Flip educators, mostly beginner dancers, and a select few artists from Infinite Flow Dance came together for a day-long interactive dance workshop and video shoot.

My Role: Choreographer, Director, Performer

The Challenge: How do you incorporate DEI in an entertaining and uplifting way within a corporate year-end celebration?

The Project: Due to Covid 19, PayPal took its company-wide year end celebration virtually for 2021.  With the theme “More Ways to Dream”, showing the world that small actions empower dreams, PayPal chose to host an exciting virtual celebration that incorporated guest entertainment, company announcements, and more.  As a unique way to celebrate diversity, PayPal invited Infinite Flow to be a featured performer.  I produced a 18 minute pre-recorded virtual performance incorporating 9 company dancers and members of Infinite Flow Kids, the youth performing group within Infinite Flow Kids. 

Filming & Set Design: Kenzo Le. 
Company: Infinite Flow Dance, Infinite Flow Kids 

My Role: Executive Producer, Creative Director, Supervising Choreographer, Performer

The Challenge: How do you inspire unity out of a polarized nation?

The Project: 5 days after the 2016 presidential election that divided the country, I brought together 100+ people from all walks of life to dance together in a viral flashmob that took place in Venice Beach.  Led by me and company dancers of Infinite Flow Dance, we danced our hearts out in unity regardless of race, color, size, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or political party, with the message that we can still unite and connect despite our differences.  Our #InfiniteInclusion flashmob video went viral globally. 

Filming & Editing: Kenzo Le
Mobbers: Infinite Flow Dance + Community

My Role: Creative Director, Principal Performer

The Challenge:  How can you radically change perceptions around disability?

The Project:  As a Red Bull Amaphiko Social Entrepreneur, I had the opportunity to give “wings” to my creative work at Infinite Flow through multiple projects and opportunities.  Through this video project, sponsored by Red Bull, I innovate in innovative choreographer Phillip Chbeeb to set a new duet with Infinite Flow company dancer and wheelchair ballroom dance champion Piotr Iwanicki.  The video went viral globally with over 30 million views across social media. 

Filming & Editing: Ryan Fleming

My Role: Headline Performer

The Challenge: How can you highlight Apple’s continuous commitment to accessibility and disability inclusion? How can you celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day in a creative way?

The Project: Apple believes “Technology is most powerful when it empowers everyone”.  May 17, 2018, wheelchair dancer Piotr Iwanicki and I performed at Apple's Steve Jobs Theater for a special presentation celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day, a community-driven awareness day taking place the 3rd Thursday of May to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about what it means to be accessible and inclusive for people of all abilities in technology.  The presentation was attended by CEO Tim Cook, VP Lisa Jackson, 500+ Apple employees, and 100 students from California School for the Deaf. The performance was also streamed live to the 125,000 Apple employees globally. We made history becoming the first dancers to ever step foot onto Steve Jobs Theater and also the first presenters at the theater to receive a standing ovation. 

We performed "Gravity", an award-winning work choreographed by Gary Franco.

My Role: Creative Director, Producer, Performer

The Challenge: How do you keep entertaining and inspiring during a lockdown?

The Project: Just because Covid-19 shut down the entertainment, sports, and performing arts industries doesn’t mean we stop creating. In partnership with adidas and in collaboration with my company dancers from Infinite Flow, we created a fun video from our homes for the adidas #HomeTeam series. ** I was named by adidas as 1 of 9 women “reimagining sport” for their International Womens Day campaign 2020.

Video Editing: Kenzo Le

My Role: Speaker, Artistic Director, Performer

The Challenge: How do you produce a DEI presentation that speaks to hearts?  How can you leave leaders engaged and excited, as we slowly transition into the post-pandemic era?

The Project: Deloitte’s Strategic Tax Conference drew together their top accounting leaders from around the country for an in-person gathering November 2021.  As one of the first large in-person meetings at a time when there were still many Covid-19 regulations and restrictions in place, Deloitte wanted to make sure the impact of the conference was ten-fold.  DEI at Deloitte was still a young topic.  Yet, Deloitte’s DEI leaders were ambitious to presenting DEI in a nontraditional creative way that spoke to hearts, and tasked me to put together a keynote lunch performance and presentation that spoke to Deloitte’s “6 C’s of Inclusive Leadership Framework”: Curiosity, Cultural Intelligence, Collaboration, Commitment, Courage, Cognizance.  A moving dance performance with 8 Infinite Flow dancers was followed by a fireside chat with Deloitte Chief Inclusion Officer Stephen Metoyer and myself, an audience interactive ASL dance break, and a short share panel with my dancers.  I used the power of storytelling through movement and personal narrative to SHOW the 6 C’s.  

My Role: Choreographer, Casting Coordinator

The Challenge: How do you show that a powerchair user can dance?  How do you create a celebratory surprise dance with 8 wheelchair users within a high school prom dance scene?

The Project: Speechless is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC 2016-2019 across 3 seasons. The sitcom explores both the serious and humorous challenges a family faces with a teenager with a disability - JJ, a boy with cerebral palsy, who uses a power chair, and is unable to speak, played by Micah Fowler, an actor who also has cerebral palsy in real life. In Season 3, episode 19, JJ asks his girlfriend Izzy to prom, but she says no. In the meantime JJ’s siblings Dylan and Ray are outraged and plans a plot to make her jealous. Izzy decides to attend prom halfway through, and is hurt by the plot. To make up for his siblings actions, JJ surprises Izzy with a surprise dance with 8 wheelchair dancers. I was invited to choreograph this scene with 8 wheelchair dancers, and a scene with JJ and Izzy prior to prom where JJ shows Izzy that he can dance. On set, I suggested to the director to have the wheelchair dancers also dance with the high school student extras, knowing that one of the show’s goals was disability inclusion. My suggestion was accepted.

My Role: Keynote Speaker & Performer

The Challenge: How do you add a dose of creativity, inspiration, and entertainment to a full-day accessibility summit?

The Project:  I had the honor to speak and perform at the Facebook (now renamed Meta) Accessibility Design Summit in front of 150 Facebook Designers & Engineers Thurs May 16, 2019 at Facebook HQ in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), a day to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access and inclusion.  GAAD is an annual event taking place on the 3rd Thursday of May.   The full-day summit was programmed with a series of talks by leaders of multiple teams working on different aspects of accessibility of Facebook's family of apps: captioning, color contrast, graphic design, physical accessibility, sound design, generational and cultural gaps, etc.  I personally learned a lot about tech accessibility this day and appreciated the messages repeated throughout the day:

• Accessibility is a human right. 

• Good design enables, bad design disables. 

• Improving on accessibility leads to innovation and helps humanity as a whole = Universal design. 

• Accessibility leads to creating spaces of belonging and it’s an ongoing conversation.

• Accessibility is multidimensional: visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, new to tech, generational... 

My performance with wheelchair dancer Piotr Iwanicki was followed by a keynote talk centered on not underestimating the impact of accessible technology, and a short audience interactive ASL dance break.  Infinite Flow was born on Facebook and is a living breathing example of Facebook's mission "to bring people closer together and build community".  My work was a reminder to Facebookers of the impact that Facebook has in building community and making a difference in the world.  Improving the accessibility of their products allow more people to engage and connect and opens more doors of opportunity. 

My Role: Director, Choreographer

The Challenge: How do you capture the spirit of a hospital through a dance video?

The Project: Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a leading acute care inpatient rehabilitation hospital for children and adults who have experienced a brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, amputation, or other injury or illness requiring physical rehabilitation.  Mary Free Bed invited me to choreograph and direct a dance video in celebration of National Rehabilitation Week, September 16-22, 2018, featuring Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital staff members, former patients, and Junior Wheelchair Sports Campers.  With the exception of one staff member, no one in the cast had any formal dance training.  Over the course of 4 days, I led multiple rehearsals and worked with Mary Freebed’s in-house video team to shoot the video.  We shot the video in multiple locations: the Mary Freebed Rehabilitation Hospital, Mary Free Bed YMCA, and Grand Rapids landmark The Blue Bridge.  This was truly a miracle project  

My Role: Producer, Event Organizer, Host, Performer

The Challenge:  Will my theory of dance accelerating human connection work in Japan?

The Project: When I found out that my sister was getting married in Tokyo, I decided to leverage my stay there and organize a community event.  After the Venice flashmob video went globally viral, I noticed that there was talk about me and Infinite Flow on Japanese blogs and social media related to disability and dance.  The 2020 Tokyo Olympics & Paralympics was coming up and the words “diversity” and “inclusion” were tossed around for the first time in Japanese history.  With the support of my alma mater Keio University and its leadership program “Fukuzawa Bunmeijuku'', and using social media to spread the word, I organized a 2-hour community event composed of performance, lecture, and dance workshop.  I also created a Japanese intro reel prior to the event.  The evening started with a bit of awkwardness with 60 strangers gathered in one college classroom.  Being Japanese myself, our culture is reserved.  We protect our private space and typically Japanese are not the first ones to get dancing on the dance floor.  But by the end of the 2 hours, it was as if we were united as one family.  I was reminded of the power of dance to build community.  

My Role: Keynote Speaker, Headline Performer

The Challenge: How do you create DEI programming that speaks to hearts?

The Project: Kaiser Permanente's annual Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Conference draws together hundreds of  aiser employees (doctors, nurses, HR professionals, administrators, etc.) from across the nation to celebrate, engage, and learn about issues such as equal care, equity in pay, unconscious bias and more.  I was invited to open the conference with a surprise performance, and give a mini keynote talk mid-conference for their 2018 conference.  Through client request, I choreographed and priemered a new work to Andra Day’s “Rise Up” with my dance partner Adelfo Cerame Jr.  “Rise Up”, which has remains a core part of our repertory since. 

My Role: Featured Community Leader, Storyteller

The Challenge: How do you document the impact of a product in the community?

The Project: The Community Voices from Facebook short documentary series celebrates how people are bringing the world closer together through the Facebook platform.  One video is broadcasted weekly at the company-wide meeting led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and a select few are posted online.  Emotionally drawn to our story, COO Sheryl Sandberg shared our video segment on her Facebook Timeline. Our segment has also been playing on a loop at Facebook office reception centers globally.  Thank you, Facebook for scouting us among billions of stories.

My Role: Keynote Speaker & Performer

The Challenge: How do you stimulate the senses and minds of world class coaches, creatives, artists, and leaders in a out-of-the-box way?

The Project: Led by globally recognized high-performance coach Andy Walshe, Red Bull "Glimpses" is an annual one- day conference bringing together "world-class talent from all areas of life to illuminate our understanding of human potential".  I was invited as a keynote speaker and performer to open the 2018 conference.  My presentation comprised of a dance performance (with wheelchair dancer Piotr Iwanicki), talk, and an audience interactive dance session.  In the audience were Red Bull North America C- suite executives, Olympic athletes and trainers, and other elite innovators and creatives.  

“Marisa kicked off our human performance gathering with an eye watering, beautiful and creative dance.  Marisa shared her unique perspective on performance through the lens of someone who has lived with a disability. Her keynote was inspirational and moving- it brought tears to many people! I highly recommend Marisa as a dancer and a speaker to engage and inspire.” - Jenny Milnes, Red Bull High Performance 

My Role: Artistic Director, Performer

The Challenge: How do you program a guest performance that is entertaining, inspiring, and artistically stimulating all at once?

The Project: Red Bull Dance Your Style is a global all-styles street dance event series with a unique battle format. From hip hop to house, to locking to popping, dancers participating in Red Bull Dance Your Style will need to ‘wow’ the crowd and ultimately win their vote.  Infinite Flow was invited as guest artists at Red Bull Dance Your Style Washington DC. for a guest performance between the semi-final and final round of the battles.  With a raving audience following our performance in DC, we were brought back for an encore performance for Dance Your Style Boston two weekends later.

Thank you Tulane University SAPHE (Sexual Aggression Peer Hotline and Education) for inviting me to lead a movement mindfulness workshop.  It was a beautiful 90 minutes in the courtyard of the beautiful Tulane campus of consciously breathing, moving, and letting go.

As a stroke survivor, multiple sexual assault survivor, and survivor of other things, on top of being a dance artist and founding director of Infinite Flow Dance, it’s been a life long journey of learning, unlearning, and relearning to connect with my body and inner wisdom.  

Our inner world is a reflection of our outer world.  In an unstable world and in our increasingly busy lives where technology is available at our fingertips, connecting with our bodies and having a daily mindfulness practice is more important than ever.  

Our bodies are sacred.  It is through our bodies that we build our careers, contribute to society, and experience life.  Like a musical instrument, our bodies must be tuned regularly. 

Teaching this workshop at Tulane SAPHE gave me confirmation that the methods and practices that I have experimentally developed and continue to develop in my personal journey of body liberation are tools that can benefit others. 

My Role: Director, Performer, Writer

The Challenge: Disability inclusion and DEI are topics that are important but missing from school curriculum.  How can we inspire the next generation to be more inclusive?  How can we create systemic change? 

The Project: Infinite Flow School Assemblies are school performances led by Infinite Flow's dancers with and without disabilities, empowering students K-5 to celebrate diversity and thrive through challenges, while making improvements on inclusion and accessibility practices at the school as a whole. Our school assemblies are 45-60 minutes each and the assembly includes performances, motivational speaking, introduction to sign language, and lots of student interaction, empowering students to become an inclusion superhero.

My Role: Executive Director & Producer, Performer.

The Challenge: How can we deliver an elementary school assembly virtually?  How can we remove financial barriers to accessing our elementary school assembly? 

The Project:  Scoops of Inclusion, is a short film and online learning platform celebrating diversity and empowering kids to take an active role in making the world a more inclusive place where we each feel we belong.  Made for kids, schools, and families, Scoops of Inclusion comes with lesson plans, worksheets, and contests, and is easily integrated into the school curriculum, and can be enjoyed also as a family activity.  And it’s available at No Cost.  Scoops of Inclusion was born from taking Infinite Flow’s in-person school assembly program to a virtual program during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it was produced following Covid-19 filming guidelines and best practices.   Scoops of Inclusion premiered is available to watch on the Scoops o Inclusion website. 

My Role: Director, Manager, Educator

The Challenge: Could children with and without disabilities learn and grow together as equals in an ongoing youth performance group?

The Project: Children with various disabilities nationally and globally are excluded from everyday activities.  I have received a handful of phone calls from parents of children with disabilities in distress from their child being denied at the local dance studios from joining group classes and made to take private lessons or denied altogether.  Creating a “special program” for children with disabilities within a studio can also be harmful.  This is the equivalent of the pre-civil rights movement where Blacks and Whites were segregated.  With the strong belief that children with and without disabilities could learn and grow together in a dance program, a few months after founding Infinite Flow in March 2015, I experimentally created Infinite Flow Kids, a kids dance company where kids with and without disabilities dance and grow together, cultivating young leaders and dancers.  Members of Infinite Flow Kids also engage in leadership activities, such as public speaking, youth ambassadorship, and have played critical roles in some of our most impactful projects including our virtual school assembly short film Scoops of Inclusion. Infinite Flow’s company dancers were brought in to teach Infinite Flow Kids classes, including deaf dancer Shaheem and wheelchair dancers Mia Schaikewitz, and former company dancer Auti Angel.  Infinite Flow Kids proved that children with and without disabilities can be integrated into dance programming.  

My Role: Creative Director, Choreographer, Performer

The Challenge: How do you create a killer closing performance that leaves the audience in awe, hope, and wanting more?

The Project: 29 Rooms is a popup touring “interactive funhouse of style, culture, and creativity” produced by Refinery 29, a popular American multinational feminist digital media and entertainment website focused on young women.  I was invited by Refiney 29 to produce a short 10-minute dance performance that closed each night during 29 Room’s 4-day popup in Los Angeles.  A brought together a diverse group of female dancers, with some a core member of Infinite Flow.  We killed each night. 

My Role: Producer, Director, Choreographer, Dance Teacher

The Challenge: How do you keep leaders engaged and connected with one another?

The Project: Kaiser Permanente has hosted an annual in-person large-scale EID (Equity Inclusion Diversity) for over 40 years.  Due to Covid-19, for 2020, KP had to pivot and deliver the conference virtually.  KP’s EID leaders had an idea to open the virtual conference with a dance video performed by their diverse BRG (Business Resource Group) leaders, as a fun surprise to all attendees.  I was brought in to take their vision from concept to completion as a producer, director, and choreographer.  16 BRG leaders located across the nation whose roles spanned from doctors and therapists to analysts and admin, met virtually for a few dance workshops.  The choreography was created in collaboration with BRG leaders, who were mostly novice dancers with little or no formal dance training.  We told the story of how the pandemic brought much isolation and loneliness, and we were able to stay connected through technology.  I also tied it to the theme of their conference: Impact.  That impact spreads like a ripple.

My Role: Choreographer, Dance Supervisor, Nonprofit Partner Lead

The Challenge: How do we tell the story of Infinite Flow creatively through a short VR film?

The Project: Oculus VR for Good Creators Lab pairs rising filmmakers with nonprofits to use the power of VR to tell stories and help people around the world better understand each other. Through VR, Oculus aims to bring greater awareness to the challenges people face globally.  Infinite Flow was chosen as 1 of 10 worldwide social good causes to partner in the Creators Lab cohort #2.  With VR filmmaker Jessica Kantor, we created “Together As One”.  The VR film is available for free via the Oculus Video app on Rift, Oculus Go, and Gear VR.  "Together As One invites its audience to experience the journey of inclusion, featuring a diverse company of mixed abled dancers. Starting with the imagination of a young boy and girl who sit alone in a theatre watching a pair of dancers, the children’s imagination comes to life through animation and performance. The lights come up and two dancers meet. It’s awkward, and they struggle. Being a part of this world doesn’t exist without hard work and struggle. As the duo feels more comfortable, they begin attempting harder lifts. A company of dancers join them as the performance crescendos to a moment of explosive applause. We see dance brought to life through the community created on stage."