Today we’d like to introduce you to Mari Sharpe.
Hi Mari, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I was always an intense kid, but after entering Canyon Concert Ballet’s (CCB’s) professional training program at nine years old (after dancing recreationally since age two) my intensity turned into real intention. By the start of high school, I was regularly dancing thirty-five hours per week, as well as teaching classes for other young dancers. At age seventeen I was accepted into CCB’s affiliate performance company. I worked there for two wonderful years, the second of which was simultaneously spent flying all over the country posing for and staging fine art dance photography.
During my second company year I was accepted into Colorado State University (CSU), intending to study nutrition. However, the more I planned out my schooling, the more my artist self fought to expand in a more inclusive direction. A distant memory of attending a circus show with my mother bubbled to the surface with aggressive force, and I began my search for circus schools. Eventually, I was accepted by The School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts (SANCA) in Seattle, WA. At that time their professional preparatory sector consisted of a year-long intensive training program, 40 hours per week. I switched my major at CSU in order to study online, then moved across the country to begin training in both acrobatics and early childhood development with a pre-med focus.
After my SANCA graduation, a dance studio I’d been teaching for part-time promoted me, and I was suddenly directing their advanced competition team. This was a new world for me, and my experience with directing and choreography grew exponentially. At the end of my first year as director, our dancers won a national competition for the first time in the studio’s history – an inspiring experience for me. I’ve learned so much from my students over the years, and working with them has helped my passion for honing a vision grow and grow.
Eventually, I threw myself back into life as a professional full-time performer. The Seattle circus community was incredibly supportive and provided much-welcomed mentorship and opportunity as I began finding this new version of myself both in dance and in the circus. Eventually, my treasured network of artists led me to Emerald City Trapeze Arts (ECTA). Through both ECTA and Pneumatic Arts (then affiliated) I was able to blend all of my artistic obsessions, gain a few new ones (including my latest: flying trapeze), and befriend a nearly entirely new-to-me branch of the circus community. Once again my eyes were opened to the vast expanse of the circus world! I felt pulled to reach beyond the Pacific North West and experience a different circus-rich part of the country: Las Vegas. Here in the desert I’ve already learned so much, and feel lucky to have a handful of my previous industry friends here with me, as well as many new ones, as I continue training, teaching, and performing.
The gratitude I feel for my coaches and mentors is far too extensive to fully express, but I do know I wouldn’t be anywhere close to who I am today if it weren’t for the experiences gifted to me by my schools, teachers, companies, students, friends, and family.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has at the very least been thrilling.
I was born and raised in a difficult family dynamic, losing quite a few childhood memories to trauma and dissociation. While parts of my family have given me more love and opportunity than I ever could have asked for, the impact of those negative experiences has stayed with me throughout my life. Mental illness runs in my family as well. My trauma and mental spiciness compounded, making me an incredibly unstable teenager.
Early on I developed anorexia and began to self-harm. In high school, my self-destructive behaviors kept me isolated. I lost many of my childhood friends and became a target for gossip, false rumors, and bullying. I used overachievement as a coping mechanism to mask my underlying turmoil, making myself believe any ounce of free time meant failure and burning myself out to the extreme. I barely left time for sleep, and even when I did my insomnia took over. I was physically sick constantly. At sixteen I was hospitalized for weeks at a time on three separate occasions due to mental illness. I truly wanted to die, and being kept from my obscene amount of commitments made me feel like even more of a burden. Eventually, motivated by the thought of eternal hospitalization with no way to dance, I finally began to give in to the work of psychologists, psychiatrists, and specialized nutritionists.
By seventeen I felt well enough to know I wanted to keep fighting, then a friend of mine was killed in a car accident. Since then I’ve experienced the death of people close to me through murder and suicide as well, both at separate stages of my life, and both seemingly more complicated than I ever thought possible. Processing many of these experiences has been overwhelming, and at times has felt insurmountable. The dysregulation of my nervous system led to many chronic physical injuries and left me feeling helpless in isolated moments where self-defense was necessary.
The subsequent mental numbing of my body has been possibly the most important hurdle I’ve overcome in the pursuit of my passions. Now nearly a decade in the future since starting my intentional healing process I feel more able to reflect on the impact of these experiences, and how they can affect the way our minds and bodies go about living if left alone. From this I’ve realized the post-traumatic mental numbing of my body has been possibly the most important hurdle I’ve worked though in the pursuit of my passions (a sensation further aggravated by my transition from ballet to circus as my body transformed into something altogether new). Through this journey of reclaiming my genuine self, I feel I’ve been introduced to humanity for the first time. I’ve been forced to study my truths, and truly feel them thoroughly in order to keep myself alive in every sense of the word. Over the last few years, I’ve reached a stable, thriving place. I know I want to be healthy; I know I want to feel as much as I can; and I know bringing this emotion into my coaching and my performance is central to both my professional and personal self. While many struggles will be a lifelong battle, those same struggles have become manageable and even helped me find a truly fulfilling life: one full of love, learning, and community dedicated to holding space for the strange beauty of this world we live in.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a performance artist and coach of many kinds! I work on stage and on camera as a dancer, circus artist, and occasional actor or musician, but I also love working behind the scenes. I choreograph dance and acrobatic pieces, direct shows (artistic and creative direction), do theatre lighting design and audio tech, and provide beginner to advanced coaching for over a dozen specific disciplines.
As a circus artist, I consider my primary disciplines to be Lyra, contortion, pole, and acro-dance, but I do generally maintain a roster of secondary disciplines as well should the opportunity arise; these include hair suspension, glow-whip, inline trick skating, general aerials, and most recently flying trapeze. While I will break out my pointe shoes every once in a while, these days as a dancer I specialize in contemporary and commercial work, still coaching many other styles as well.
I’m proud to maintain careers in both circus and dance simultaneously. I feel this sets me apart from others in my field and can bring a fresh perspective to the table when helping a vision come to life. I also feel proud of my ability to have fun while on stage. Becoming the character you play is an art of its own, and I love working that muscle and continuing to dig deeper.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Through the pandemic, I learned to be still, be weird, and be selective about where (and on whom) I spend my energy. You’re the only one with goals specific to you and you’re the only one capable of feeling what will best push you toward those goals.
Pricing:
- Choreography: small group (2-5 performers) $250 per person, large group (6+ performers) $175 per person, solo $700
- Ambient performance: $350-$3500 depending on the timeline & discipline
- One-off full-act performance: $500-$1500 depending on the discipline & length of the act.
- Show run: $300 per show minimum, negotiated considering time on stage, the intensity of the program, & length of the contract.
- Coaching: group class $15 per person per hour, private lesson $100 per hour, workshop $75 per person per hour (minimum 5 people).
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @mari.sharpe
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DH0rWPEN44&t=2s
Image Credits
Michael Albright, Eli Akerstein, and John Cornicello
