Today we’d like to introduce you to Mack Mercury.
Hi Mack, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Thank you for having me, and I would love to! I started dancing over two and a half decades ago, grew up dancing competitively, and taught dance for the first time in 2006. I was a co-captain of my high school’s dance team, and then the internal relations chair on the dance team I joined during undergrad. After earning my bachelor’s degree, my main focus became establishing my creative and digital marketing career.
But it wasn’t long before I missed dance more than I could bear, so I did some online searching for local classes and performance opportunities. Through my first dance gig at R-Bar, I heard about Attitudes holding open auditions for dancers to close drag shows with group numbers. And it was through that gig that I first fell in love with the art form of drag.
I performed in drag for the first time at an open stage night in May 2017, and for the first time, I felt fully empowered onstage. I didn’t feel any of the shame, self-consciousness, or pressure that had motivated so much of my participation in the competitive dance world of my youth. In drag I was not only free to be my fully authentic self in public, but also affirmed and celebrated for doing so for the first time. Naturally, drag almost immediately became a massive part of my life. I later went on to co-host and co-produce weekly shows before running for and winning King of Pride St. Louis back in 2019.
Then the pandemic shook things up in many ways, and the performance scene took a hard hit. Like many other entertainers, I took a long unplanned break from performing. It was tough to adjust to life without the regular creative outlet and community of drag shows, but creating routines that involved creativity and movement helped me maintain some of my mental health in isolation. Video calls with loved ones also became an additional lifeline for emotional support and well-being.
As I started to experience firsthand again how healing movement and collaborative creativity can be, I also began to reconnect with my passion for dance. I was reminded of how I feel the most aligned with my purpose when teaching dance classes – and the most balanced, peaceful, and joyful, too.
In January 2023 I expanded my freelance creative marketing practice to include online dance and exercise classes, rebranded, and got established as Direct Motion Creative Collective, LLC. My core intention for Direct Motion is to make the healing potential of embodied creative expression more accessible, empower marginalized creatives, and facilitate space for connection with community and oneself through movement.
This spring I also started Direct Motion’s TranscenDance program, which provides no-cost classes to financially under-supported trans and gender-expansive folks, and Direct Motion now also offers in-person group movement classes and one-on-one tarot and astrology readings at the new Connect Community Center for Wellbeing in Tower Grove Heights.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Woo buddy, it definitely has not been easy or smooth. When I was first getting Direct Motion up and running, I was simultaneously in the process of getting a divorce, grieving the need to go no contact with my legal family, showering at friends’ houses after losing access to hot water at home, and had also recently lost a 40 hour/week marketing contract after over a year and a half of working towards permanent employment. My mental health was not at its best (to say the least), and I had to get comfortable with asking for and receiving support from others to meet my basic needs.
These challenges certainly reminded me of the importance of a dependable support system, though, and I learned just how powerful and life-sustaining the love of chosen family can be. Direct Motion would not be a reality today if it weren’t for the support that I received while struggling, and I am incredibly privileged and grateful to be able to continue this work thanks to the ongoing support of Direct Motion’s students and patrons.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Thank you so much! What I do for work varies depending on the day (or the hour), but I spend most of my time doing marketing and administration for Direct Motion’s offerings and teaching dance & exercise classes. I also do consulting work across marketing strategy, graphic design, and content development, as well as drag performance, tarot and natal astrology readings, and digital art commissions.
Drag-wise, I mostly perform as drag king Dickie Rebellion, but I also recently introduced my femme-sona, Marina Mercury. Regardless of gender presentation, I’m definitely known for my tap dancing comedy drag. I’m also known for getting earnest and making puns on the mic, performing absurd mixes that I create myself, my sense of musicality and theatricality, my ability to connect with audiences, and also my love for dad rock and disco.
A unique thing about my work is that I see drag, dance, and all forms of visual and performance art as opportunities for healing through creative expression and authentic connection. Some performers see getting into drag as putting on an armor of sorts as they put on makeup, wigs, tights, pads, and costumes to get into character. While yes, Dickie and Marina are technically characters I play, I also see them as personified elements of my core, most authentic self that come to life on stage.
Whether through teaching dance, performing drag, consulting, creating, or spiritual work, my goal is always to create and nurture spaces where trans and queer folks can feel safe, free, and empowered to show up as exactly who they are. And I know that begins with me leading by example, showing up 100% authentically in all that I do.
Can you talk to us about the role of luck?
The initial creation of Direct Motion was when I had bad luck in nearly every area of my life, and has been my way of alchemizing the emotions from those experiences into something that would instead support my financial survival; create more time and space for joy, creativity, and healing; and enable me to share that joy, creativity, and healing with my community.
Getting to where I am today, both personally and professionally, is the result of setting these intentions, consistently acting in alignment with them, and connecting with a beautifully supportive network of community, friends, and chosen family who also want to build a kinder, safer, more affirming world for us all. To connect and reconnect with this kind of love, care, and support as I continue to grow Direct Motion is undoubtedly good luck in my book!
Pricing:
- $11 Online Dance & Exercise Classes
- $15 In-person Tap Dance Workshops (second Thursday of every month at the Crack Fox, ages 21+)
- $10-$15 Live variety shows (last Wednesday of every month at the Crack Fox, ages 21+)
Contact Info:
- Website: mackmercury.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mackslashdickie/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/directmotiondance
Image Credits
Elizabeth Rajchart
