Monica Sharon Manarino is an immersive dance theater artist, choreographer, and director whose work explores the intersection of movement, narrative, and audience interaction. She began dancing at the age of three and has dedicated her life to the art form, earning a BFA in Dance from New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, in 2015. During her studies, she developed a strong interest in interactive dance and has continued to explore the relationship between performers and audiences throughout her career.
After graduating, Monica moved to Europe, where she developed her first full-length interactive dance theater production during an artist residency in Amsterdam. This experience laid the foundation for her work in immersive and site-specific performance. She went on to produce a series of immersive dining experiences, blending performance, movement, and audience participation in unique culinary settings. One of these projects toured internationally, with performances in the UAE, Europe, and the United States.
Her success in immersive performance led her to Los Angeles, where she worked as the creative director, choreographer, and theater director for Tyra Banks, helping to conceptualize and execute immersive dining experiences and live productions, including a theatrical experience for Banks' company, ModelLand. During her time in Los Angeles, Monica co-founded The Hotel Who, an immersive performance brand through which she wrote, directed, and choreographed three large-scale overnight mystery shows. These productions transformed historical and non-traditional locations—such as hotels and a Hollywood castle—into fully realized theatrical worlds, incorporating elements of dance, narrative, and audience participation to create an interactive, cinematic experience.