Hola, Soy Mari.
I feel most free and fully embodied when I am telling stories with my body and voice.
After a six-year career as a Program Manager and Executive Seller in Big Tech and one cross-country move, I left my corporate job to pursue my life’s work as an artist.
I’m currently based in New York City, and I create and perform across multiple mediums, including musical theatre, Afro-Latin dance, and TV/Film. I specialize in storytelling through Afro-Latin dance.
I use they/them pronouns, and I am queer, non-binary, neurodivergent, and mixed Latiné (Native New Mexican Mestize)* and white.
*Being “from” New Mexico is a tricky thing to explain, but the shortest version is: my mother is of mixed Spanish and Indigenous Mesoamerican descent- specifically from the Jicarilla Apache, Tiwa and Tewa lands that are today known as New Mexico. It’s deeply important to me to acknowledge and honor my indigenous ancestors, who were intentionally erased by both Spanish and American efforts to colonize the Southwest.
Me? In a box? No thanks!
I don’t fit the mold, and that lets me pull from my numerous frames of musical, movement and storytelling references to create something grounded, honest, and compelling.
I’m here to reimagine existing works, to partake in living, breathing shows that make space for individual artistry, and to collaborate in new creative processes that fuse stories with rhythm and gender fluidity.
Along the way, I’m hoping to laugh a lot, sing a little blues, trill out a grito (or two or three), and fly across the dance floor in the company of other daring artists.
If you’re eager to make art that sets you on fire, especially if it deals with themes of gender, queerness, neurodivergence and/or mestizaje—or if there’s a chance we’ll do some Graham contractions and pretend to be gothy witches, count me in!
