Meet Mia Marina | Actor & Dancer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mia Marina and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mia, why did you pursue a creative career?
I’ll be honest, choosing this career path wasn’t an easy choice for me. In fact, it wasn’t my initial path early in life as a young adult. Initially, I took what I deemed the “safe” route for a career in the sciences. Truth is, I was hiding behind skills that I was good at and that would give me some sort of financial security and prestige. But while the sciences came naturally to me and I enjoyed them, that career didn’t fulfill the deep desires in my soul for creativity and artful expression. When I was finally brutally honest with myself (and that took many years), and asked MYSELF what my purpose was in this life, that’s when it became glaringly obvious to me. I am a performer. I am an artist. I have a deep desire to make people feel. I want to make people feel SOMETHING. Anything. But I want to move them, tell stories. Connect. And it was only then that I had the courage to jump headfirst into acting and dancing. And I’ve never looked back!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve always been a performer, since a very young age. The rush of being on stage in front of people and putting on a show was always so thrilling for me! Growing up, I was classically trained in dance and performed whenever and wherever I could. As I got older, I added the theatre into my repertoire. I think if I look back on younger me, I can admit that deep down I wanted to make performing my career. I wanted to move people. I wanted to tell stories. But I was unsure how to make it happen for myself. And honestly, I think I was afraid of failing. What if I actually admitted to people what I loved but never ended up being successful at it? That thought terrified me. And so, I committed one of the worst offenses one can commit. I betrayed myself. I turned a blind eye to my actual passions and set my sights on a career that I was good at, but not passionate about. I was great at science. There was a clear career path. Science is respected and I enjoyed it. It would take me years and a catastrophic life event that would help me return home to myself. But if not for all those years in a career I was ho-hum about and if not for my entire personal life falling apart, I don’t know that I would have had the courage to really, honestly look at the life I had built and decide to burn it to the ground!
At that point in my life I had to make a choice, was I going to live a life lacking joy or was I going to have the courage to be truthful with myself and actually reach for the stars, follow my dreams, take the risk? At that point in my life I also had three very young children to provide for and if I decided to follow my heart, I absolutely could not fail! But what would I want for my children if they were in the same situation? That made my decision so very clear for me.
I am Mia Marina and I’m an actress and a dancer. I embody emotions through movement and through storytelling to entertain, to teach, to make people feel.
This is not an easy career by any stretch of the imagination. You have to be willing to be vulnerable, to be authentic and truthful, to allow others to see parts of you that you’d otherwise hide from the world. Oh but the joy when you know you’ve really connected with people, you’ve taught them something, you’ve brought them to an emotion, to a place of resonance….there’s nothing like it in the entire world for me.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh Colorado is such a magical place! On my must-do list would be a trip to the DCPA to enjoy a Broadway show, a visit to our very own Meow Wolf museum for an experience unlike any other, and of course a trip to our beautiful Rocky Mountains for an exhilarating mountain hike followed by a relaxing dip in one of our many natural hot springs!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
A lot of my story has unfolded because of deep self reflection and hard inner work…That being said, two individuals have been instrumental in my successes because of their unconditional love and support and their willingness to see me for exactly who I am and to encourage me to not turn away from myself, but to embrace every piece of me. Endless gratitude to my sister, Ivsar Marina and to my partner in life, Jon Stevenson.

Website: Www.Mia-Marina.com

Instagram: @mia_marina_official

Image Credits
Matt Draper of Draper Studios Paper Airplanes Photo