We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marissa Alma Nick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marissa Alma below.

Alright, Marissa Alma thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

As far as my career goes, so far, my most unexpected business problem was when my chosen path of nearly thirty years (as a professional dancer, and choreographer) was halted when both of my lateral menisci tore. My whole life, I had only ever planned on dancing, and choreographing (like Martha Graham) until the day I died, but my knees had other plans. On top of that (just two months later), Covid came into the world, and not only was I not dancing, but the entire world was at rest. I saw no way forward if I’m being fully honest, and to make matters more complicated, and weighted… my best friend had just died by suicide as well. So the light I once felt, my hopes, my dreams, my ability to smile, the world’s once shared reality… all of it gone, all at once.

At my lowest, I was fortunate to have incredible friends, and family help me into therapy… and that is when I began writing. To be clear. I had always been writing, passionately (short stories, poems, screenplays) but I had never published or publicly shared what I had written. I kept it to myself, as I was proudly taking up space as a “dancer/choreographer”… that was until I lost everything, including my sense of self. But funny enough, that kind of loss can make you fearless… like no one else’s opinion even matters kind of fearless.

So to make a long story short, I took the money I had left in my savings, hired an editor, as well as someone to help guide me through the publishing process, I researched publishing companies, and how to self-publish and produce a book tour, I dove in head first as if I had nothing to lose because I didn’t. But the biggest part, which was necessary to move through life’s new circumstances, was my being able to let go. Letting go, and giving myself permission to start over. Leave my past in the past, and move forward… and… take a chance on myself.

Me, I had always been told by others what a good dancer and choreographer I was, so starting my own company, and pursuing that career felt like a no-brainer, and almost easy (as far as confidence goes)… but this time, it was just me telling me that I could do it, and I think that’s a powerful tool to have in your toolbox … having to depend on you, and only you (initially at least). Suffice it to say, I made the most audacious determination I had ever made thus far… I would be a writer, and not only find a way to write for a living, but I would also make myself a published author. Despite me never having any formal education in writing, or anything that indicated I should be trusted to pursue writing, or at least know anyone in publishing or someone who actually called themselves a writer… I had none of this on my side.

Still… I made that most audacious determination.

And here I am, three tumultuous, and equally exhilarating years later… I have had my first novel published, and I’m now (slowly) working on my next project: writing a pilot for a new series and finding myself (and I know this can sound cheesy) but honestly, happier than I ever have been. And not because “it’s all going so good”, it’s still a wild, unpredictable rollercoaster… but because I finally chose to believe in myself, no matter what anyone else thought, or said.

I would say in summary, allowing myself to fail forward, has given me the newfound freedom, self-belief, and even energy to embrace the unexpected in my career… and stay open, as well as tenacious enough to turn the lemon into lemonades… no matter what happens next.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My parents put me in dance class at the age of three, and it clicked for me instantly, it was all I ever wanted to do. Eventually, I’d go onto a performing arts high school, get my BFA in dance performance, and out of college I moved from Florida to Los Angeles to be a free-lance dancer (just like all the older kids at my studio had done). Eventually, I came back to Miami for production in the movie Rock of Ages (I was hired as one of the pole dancers), and surprisingly, I really liked what has happening culturally, and artistically in the city (this was 2011). So a year later, I officially moved back to Miami and started pursuing choreography and stage direction (it was ultimately what I had always wanted)…and in 2015, I finally established my lifelong dream of having my own all-femme dance company (Alma Dance Theater), and also directed ScreenDance Miami (an international screen dance festival) for a few years.

As I said before, becoming a writer wasn’t planned… but sometimes it feels like it was always meant to be… apparently I just needed the universe to break both my knees and sit me down… so I could really deal with myself, my own trauma and abuse, my own depression and grief… and somewhere along that journey, I was able to re-discover how deeply I love to write… and find a purpose beyond myself that I had been unable to find in dance (because for me, I was trying to prove so much to everyone else around me). And the purpose I discovered was to be a voice for the voiceless… particularly survivors of sexual trauma, and those who struggle with depression, and thoughts of suicide.

REBEL IN VENUS, the novel… my first published novel, can be summarized in its dedication: FOR THE GIRLS, AND ANYONE ATTEMPTING TO LIVE A LIFE FREE OF SHAME. I wanted to write about a protagonist who (by characterization and experience) may traditionally be seen as a helpless victim and worst of all a burden… and I wanted to not change who they are… and yet, still write them as a hero… as opposed to a burden. So if this book, REBEL IN VENUS, if it’s at all brand… it’s that… that and highlighting the power of vulnerability in platonic love.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

“Keep making work, don’t ever stop, or you won’t be relevant anymore.”

I spent my whole career and life chasing revelations and validation as a choreographer…, but then when I made it to the top, and did all the things I wanted to do, even things I couldn’t have ever imagined… I was exhausted, drained, and detached from any semblance of well-being because all that was important was work, and making work.

But then I was forced to slow down… and re-create a balance, a balance I hadn’t given myself permission to experience before.

And as cliche and predictable as it sounds… my life, and work as a creative got better. It became more meaningful, and I actually took time to experience life outside of art and creating. I learned to unlearn, that I don’t need to prove that I’m an artist by creating 24/7… and I did that by giving myself permission to not be relevant.

After all…. what is relevance anyway, if not truly something only I can define honestly for myself.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

As an artist and creative, there are these calmer periods… these times in your life when you simply living, and your brain seems tuned to the same channel as everyone else… but then BOOM! You tune in to a whole new channel that only you have access to… because you were the only one who created it.

Maybe it’s because of something you see, smell, hear, touches, or feel… but something just jolts your brain into action.

It’s the wildest thing… one minute you had a blank canvas, and then all of a sudden it’s filled with an idea, vision or sound, or word that only you have access to.

It’s just yours for a moment until you share it with someone or the world.

But for that one moment, when it all comes rushing in, and you’re the only one there to witness it…

It feels like being the creator of a whole new world that only you get to live in… and I think that’s why we share what we create because ultimately it would be so lonely if you were the only one to ever get to experience it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rebelinvenus.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marissaalmanick/
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1667892630/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1680798970&sr=8-1

Image Credits
Jade Lilly – First photo Ashlyn Mckibben – all other photos