Marka was raised and trained in Baltimore, MD, USA, at the Harriet Sauber Eisner Studio and The Baltimore Ballet. She also regularly performed with The Baltimore Actors Theater, Spotlighters Theater, The Vagabond Players and other local professional theater companies.
After high school she was offered a full scholarship at The Boston Conservatory and then The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where she was invited into Ailey’s prestigious Ailey II Performance Company. In 1981, she was offered a job to teach Modern and Ballet in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She worked there for nearly 8 years, training dancers and actors. She also performed in and choreographed for Concert Dance, Broadway and other International Musical Theater Productions, Television and Movies.
In 1989, Marka returned to the United States. Needing health care for her son who had a “preexisting condition”, she became a Firefighter and EMT. She worked for The James Island Fire Department and Charleston County EMS. In her mind, this was just another kind of performance art. She fell in love with the work! Helping others, like teaching, always felt right.
While being a part of the Fire Department, she renewed her studies in anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and pedagogy. As she trained to become an Emergency Medical Technician, she recognized that she could use this knowledge to train dancers and non-dancers alike to be HEALTHIER of body and mind. She became a Personal Trainer and a Corrective Exercise Specialist with the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
A cervical spinal cord injury in 1994 could have left Marka paralyzed from the shoulders down. However, she used her dance based fitness program, “Universal Physicality”, which she created in Argentina, as her own physical therapy. As she gained strength through her own rehabilitation, one of her doctors suggested that she work out at MUSC’s Wellness Center. In 2001, She was invited to teach “Universal Physicality” at the Medical University of SC and at other dance and fitness studios.
Marka sustained a second cervical SCI in 2012. This left her with incomplete quadriplegia, with very limited movement. She became a full-time wheelchair user. Because her injury caused weaknesses in her muscles used for breathing, the breath work of Yoga became more important than ever. She became a certified Yoga Instructor and then an Accessible Yoga Instructor, adapting Yoga for all different abilities as she does for herself.
Marka became very passionate about SCI Peer Mentorship and volunteers time at local hospitals and with the SC Spinal Cord Injury Association. In 2013, she studied wheelchair dance in New York City with Kitty Lunn and Alice Sheppard at Infinity Dance Theater, where she was invited to perform. She also studied with Full Radius Dance Company in Atlanta. She continues to help highlight Wheelchair and Integrative Dance performances in Charleston.
Marka’s passion for dance takes her to a new level of awareness. She's more determined than ever to help dancers of all ages and levels to stay fit and healthy. She teaches the techniques that she uses for herself to coach young dancers as they develop their skills. She also specializes in injury recovery.
Marka is happy to share with anyone who wants to watch and/or learn, her expression of the Art that she loves. SCI and other physical challenges, don’t mean life as you knew it has ended. It only means the journey has changed directions.
Purple Legs Up www.Vimeo.com/158402952
contact Marka:
Email: magicmarka@gmail.com
Facebook: Marka Danielle Instagram @therealmarkadanielle
Face Yoga website https://faceyogawithmarka.com/
by Jayne Mattingly
This is Body Grief https://www.jaynemattingly.com/the-book