My Company, Ballaro Dance, builds and maintains a
welcoming environment; our organization is a place that
promotes a spirit of engagement and the desire to learn
from and through one another. By cultivating a safe space
to observe, participate, and communicate through dance, audience, students, collaborators, and performers feel a sense of belonging. Many in our community are first-time dance viewers or class takers; I take pride in
my ability to foster safe entry points. Producing
events that provide opportunity for inclusive conversations & develop a community network:
this is what feeds me as an artist.
“The thing that stuck out to me most was your mission as Company Director to make dance accessible to a diverse population. I think that is something not often discussed...or is unfortunately overlooked, and is especially important with the state of our country and the world. Community is important now more than ever and I really respect your mission to bring people together through dance...”
MARISA’S STORY: A proud Buffalonian, Marisa f. Ballaro is Founding Artistic Director of NYC-based Ballaro Dance. Passionate about bringing sensory-rich dance experiences to new audiences and first-time MOVERS, she values community-based, collaborative projects at the core of her artistic vision.
Marisa f. Ballaro
choreographer | producer | educator | consultant
Continuing to revitalize my own personal lineage of American modern dance experiences, I approach choreography with two themes. The first reflects a love of rhythm, musicality, and the use of physical space; these dances are similar in spirit to the earliest movement memories I can recall growing up in my mother’s dance studio. An alternate but equally important focus is to use small gestures and the art of storytelling to make meaningful statements. Anna Sokolow’s desire to let motion come from emotion excites me and informs this perspective. Both approaches allow me to engage through universal themes of humanity: love, joy, sympathy, and grief.
Let’s Connect!
“Your leadership qualities and attention to detail don’t go unnoticed or unappreciated. I felt supported to move how I needed to, welcomed in your space and community to play & explore... enjoying the movement style and choreography was just the cherry on top.”
Marisa received her Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Montclair State University (2022) while selected to be the Convocation Speaker for the College of the Arts; she graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Brockport with dual degrees in Dance and Interdisciplinary Arts for Children and recently received a distinguished Outstanding Service Award from the Alumni Association. Marisa taught at The Brearley School in Manhattan for 12 years and was recognized as an Outstanding Educator by The University of Chicago in October 2019. She is the recipient of two honors awarded by The Brearley School: The Margaret Riker Harding Lower School Fellowship and The Serena Marshall Weld Award. She traveled to Barcelona, Spain in April of 2022 becoming a certified practitioner of Level 1: Simonson Teacher Training.
Most recently, Marisa was awarded a recurring Impact Grant by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to lead a nation-wide virtual project culminating in a live NYC performance event. Committed to being a lifelong learner, Marisa presented her research on identity-based composition structures in Denver, CO at the National NDEO Conference (2023) and at the NYSDEA Conference at Hunter College (2024.) Her collaborative film "The Distance" was awarded Best Choreography at the Experimental Dance & Music Film Festival (2023) and she was selected to present a multidisciplinary dance/tech work at the St. Louis Contemporary Dance Festival in June 2024. This fall, “Descent,” her first dance film director’s credit, was selected to screen at Dance City Festival in Detroit, MI and at the Ketchikan Dance Film Festival in Alaska, her evening-length multidisciplinary work The Distance is presented by Green Space at Take Root in Queens, NY and she premieres a new collaborative work, Goddess, with composer John Carroll in Dance Bloc at Dixon Place. Marisa is a passionate, lifelong Buffalo Bills fan!