Bio
Mara Neimanis creates theatre in the air using mounted and suspended steel sculptures. Drawing on traditions of Mask Performance, Clown, and Commedia dell’Arte, her work integrates circus arts with physical acting to create stories, text, and characters which explore the rich interplay of imagination between ground and air. Mara is interested in using acting and aerialism in nontraditional ways in order to cross personal boundaries and limitations.
Mara trained at The San Francisco School of Circus Arts, Trapeze Arts, Oakland, NECCA and The Toronto Circus School. She is a protégé of aerial pioneer, Terry Sendgraff, and a graduate of The Dell’Arte International School Of Physical Theatre where she served as an instructor and company member for seven years. In Baltimore, Mara was a Creative Alliance Resident Artist from 2004-2007, where she created her hit solo aerial show, Air Heart and produced The Baltimore Alley Aerial Festival, which combined graffiti and aerial artists in the rich urban landscape of down town Baltimore.
Mara has toured aerial performances and taught residencies internationally in Israel, Latvia, Canada and Costa Rica. Solo aerial theater performances include, Air Heart, Naomi’s Flight and Out Of The Blue. Aerial collaborations include Vacio with Teatro Abya Yala in Costa Rica, Paraffin with Naoko Mashieba, The Snow Queen, At Gallaudet University, and Gravity Stories at Stevenson University, and For That Which Returns with Arachne Aerial Arts, as well as a variety of work with sculptor Tim Scofield in alleyways, rooftops and abandoned buildings. One of her proudest collaborations was the 2003 production, Borders and Borderless, written and performed with elders and youth of the Yurok Nation. She has served as a guest artist at the UNA University in Hereria Costa Rica, The University of Costa Rica in San Jose, Rhodes College in Memphis, University of Missouri at Kansas City, University of Missouri at Springfield, University of Toronto, Cal Arts, MICA. Neimanis is a guild certified Feldenkrais practitioner and teaches Awareness Through Movement® as a part of Aerial Studies…