Marlise McCormick
As a choreographer, movement director and show designer, Marlise has been delivering sophisticated projects in the arts, entertainment and live event industry requiring tight, non-negotiable deadlines for more than 25 years. Her impressive career has spanned the globe with major stops in Russia, the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
She is currently designing and directing shows for Le Cirque du Soleil in their Special Events department.
Known for her versatility, Marlise’s body of work ranges from intimate, soulful dance solos to creating and directing powerful images performed by casts of thousands and televised for millions of viewers world wide. From the Opening and Closing ceremonies of Olympic and Commonwealth Games, to Cirque de Soleil’s first Vegas show (“La Nouvelle Experience”), she is equally accomplished in working with dancers, actors, singers and cirque artists. Because of her passion for music, story telling, movement and creating visual images infused with emotion and meaning, her creative approach has won her international acclaim.Marlise began her career as a dancer and choreographer at Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal after completing her degree in Music at the University of Ottawa. New York City was an additional training centre for her: The Alvin Aliey Dance School, The Limón Institute and with Lynn Simonson. She immediately entered the international scene touring Europe and the Middle East with her first dance company, Eviedanse. In 1988, she was recruited to choreograph the Opening Ceremony for Montreal Expos Baseball Team, this marking the beginning of a series of large scale televised events in her varied career as a choreographer. She went on to do two additional season openers for the Expos and, a few years later, was Choreographer and Assistant to the Artistic Director for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada. For two years in a row, she designed, directed and choreographed the Opening Ceremonies for The International European Dance Festival. In 2010, Marlise was Associate Director of Choreography of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and a few months later, was Artistic Director for 2010 Canada Day Celebrations.
Along with large scale productions, Marlise is equally at home on television and film sets, formal theatres, outdoor venues, convention centers, big tops and stadiums. Production and theatrical projects include: David Foster Foundation 2011 (Canada), Cafe Diablo (Holland), The Necklace (Canada), The Number 14 (Canada), Grease (Canada) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canada). Residencies have been at Axis Theatre (Canada), The Underground Circus (Canada) and Fontys Arts University (Holland). In addition to choreographing for countless dance companies internationally, she also works as a talent scout for Cirque du Soleil’s numerous shows. Marlise has a long list of gala and corporate clients including her current commission production for The Fluor Centennial Gala which will be held in Texas in 2012.
As a designer and choreographer, Marlise is in demand all over the world. Surrounded by distinctive colleagues specializing in music, visual content production, lighting design sound engineering, costume design, logistics and operations specialists, Marlise listens to the client and delivers the project, at any scale, on time and on budget. She is an enthusiastic team player, a risk taker and an eloquent communicator whose talents are only surpassed by the sincere dedication and joy she brings to each project.
