Jill Marissa is a performance artist with a passion for hand balancing, contemporary dance, aerial partnering, and wildly versatile character work infused with a vulnerable, potent stage presence.

 

As a young woman she moved to New York City to study dance at Hunter College, where she had the privilege of performing at the Kaye Playhouse, The New Museum for Contemporary Art, and PS 122 in works by Alwin Nikolai and Trisha Brown, among others.

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Upon moving to Seattle, she was quickly scooped up by Lara Paxton of The Aerialistas, performing with the troupe internationally and regionally for years, including prestigious engagements with Teatro Circo Price in Madrid and Friedrichsbau Variete in Germany. With Lara, she formed Duo Dizzy Daze, specializing in duo trapeze.

 

She is also a co-founder of ticktock dance, a performance company fusing deconstructed circus with contemporary dance, along with collaborators Elizabeth Rose and Bridget Gunning. With ticktock, she helped direct 2 evening-length works and several vignettes to sold-out performances in Seattle, Chicago, the New Orleans Fringe Festival, and New York City. 

 

She continues to perform regionally with circus companies including the Acrobatic Conundrum and UpUpUp Crane Truck Circus, as well as private events with Maison de V and Circuswerks. You can catch her most Sundays at the Unicorn/Narwhal as her drag alter-ego, Manny Manstands, in Mimosa’s Cabaret, Seattle’s longest running Drag Brunch.