Many people dream of running away to become circus performers. Few people actually go on to do it….but Marisa Diamond did. She is an Indigenous person from the highlands of Guatemala who grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts and when she was very young, she was a gymnast. That experience got her into circus performing, which she does now as well as circus coaching, acting, filmmaking, graphic design, and running an international film festival. As a hobby, she also dances.

Performing is something Diamond has always loved and her cousins, aunts and uncles have done family talent shows where they would perform for each other. When she was six, she went to a two-week circus day camp and loved it. The next year she went to see some of her gymnastics teammates perform as part of a pre-professional youth touring circus company and she wanted to do circus too. She trained out of a circus camp in Northern Vermont until she found somewhere closer to home and never stopped.

Gymnastics proved to be a great background for circus performing for Diamond, teaching her responsibility, discipline, and listening to her body. Her skills and body control combined with her creativity let her fall in love with the artistry of circus as an acrobat and aerialist. Diamond encourages non-gymnasts to consider circus as well, given there is also a need for jugglers, tightrope walkers, clowns, musicians, directors, stage managers, producers, and riggers, all of which require diverse skill sets. “I think it's less about preparing for circus and more about finding what you love and then finding a spot within the industry that fits that, and always being open to learning new things,” she beams.

Outside of her gymnastics training, Diamond went to university and studied interdisciplinary arts, training in acting, directing, dance, graphic design and filmmaking. She did her thesis on circus performing. The theory she learned was important but the experiences she had directing and applying what she learned made a difference for her confidence. A Southern Vermont circus boot camp she attended for three weeks in 2015 increased her circus performance skills so that the following summer she was performing in a tented circus.

After she graduated, she coached and performed a one-woman circus and comedy show in St. Louis, perfecting her skills through repetition. She also ended up working in the film industry and theatre industry. When the pandemic hit, a lot of her work stopped. That’s when she got the idea to start the film festival, combining her love of circus and film.

While she values her formal education, she says, “I think, really, just doing the thing is the best education.” With so much information available online, going to school is no longer crucial. She started her film festival without any formal training in doing so.  

Currently, Diamond is in Aotearoa, New Zealand, studying for a Master of Health, sport and human performance. Her thesis is drag queens and she’s been performing circus locally while preparing to start a circus program at a local tricking and freerunning and parkour school. Her advice for Indigenous youth considering leaving their home community to pursue their dreams is to find their people, Indigenous or not, who share their interests or experiences. She also urges having confidence in who you are and where you come from and not feeling “less than” people who come from money and privilege.

Over the years, Diamond has faced obstacles she’s been able to overcome. From the ages of 13 to 16, Diamond was quite ill and missed a lot of school and performing time. She felt like she lost her identity beyond not being able to function but her mom was supportive of her and stayed home with her once a week. She homeschooled herself and kept up with her classwork but found herself frustrated because she would start to feel better, start training again and get sick again.

Unfortunately, her illness meant that she was unable to pursue her dream of training full-time at Circus School or performing in a professional company like Cirque du Soleil. She ended up in a regular university, something she didn’t enjoy at first. She wanted to go back to training for the circus but her mom convinced her to stay. The last year and a half ended up being more enjoyable and she got to study comedy in Chicago for a semester at Second City. The show she created for her thesis led to her getting her first job after graduation. Her undergraduate degree gave her the option of doing her master’s degree in New Zealand and she’s so happy with how things turned out in the end.

If she could give a message to her younger self it would be “Just do the thing you want to do and if you end up hating it, then you can abandon it, but commit yourself to it for a little bit.” She’s found failure can be a great teacher and she’s moved on from things she didn’t end up liking.

To maintain her mental health, Diamond finds cooking her ancestral foods, making friendship bracelets, reading, or taking a long hot shower helpful to center herself. She didn’t find talk therapy as helpful as physical activity or writing down her thoughts. While she struggles with social anxiety and public speaking, it doesn’t interfere with her ability to perform unless she’s underprepared. Performing is something she does for the audience to bring them joy.

When it comes to inspiration, Diamond looks to her audience and to the students she interacts with as a coach and teacher. She’s also inspired by a Montreal-based circus company that centers on human truths and the human experience. She’s been performing in more Vaudeville-style shows lately. From a comedic perspective, she’s inspired by Charlie Chaplin and Monty Python, slapstick and wordplay. She also loves music videos and Taika Waititi films.

In closing the advice she shares is, “There are opportunities all around you, floating everywhere and all you have to do is close your hand around them, but no one else can do that for you.” After all, many people dream of running away to become circus performers and that’s an opportunity Marisa Diamond took for herself. Her high-flying dreams took her to Vermont, Chicago, St. Louis and New Zealand. Not everything went to plan, but if there’s one thing she knows how to do, it is how to be flexible and improvise. On a grand adventure, she’s performing at new heights and reaching for her master’s degree.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.