Marisa Hamamoto & Adelfo Cerame JR.
Founder & Dancer at Infinite Flow – An Inclusive Dance Company
While a college student, Marisa suffered a stroke in her spinal cord that temporarily paralyzed her from the neck down. This life changing incident eventually led her to create Infinite Flow, a nonprofit and professional dance company, composed of dancers with and without disabilities using dance to inspire inclusion and innovation.
Since 2015, Marisa has led Infinite Flow’s dancers to perform at over 100 events, from school assemblies to corporate events with Apple, Facebook, Red Bull, Porsche, Farmer’s Insurance, International Monetary Fund, Kaiser Permanente, among others. Her videos have been viewed by over 75 Million people on Facebook alone with Sheryl Sandberg and George Takei being amongst the public figures that have shared her work, and she has been featured on NBC Today, ABC Good Morning America, among other media outlets.
Marisa and wheelchair ballroom world champion Piotr Iwanicki made history by being the first dancers to perform at Apple’s Steve Jobs Theater with CEO Tim Cook in the audience, and has also been a social impact fellow with Red Bull Amaphiko and Facebook Community Leadership Program. In 2020, Marisa was selected by Adidas as 1 of 9 woman leaders “reimagining sport" for their global International Women's Day Campaign. Marisa is a leader, artist, and speaker on the rise looking to empower people through dance and storytelling to think outside the box, disable bias, build new connections, and create breakthrough innovations.
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Adelfo is a competitive bodybuilder and personal trainer / nutritional consultant, passionate about fitness, nutrition, and physical culture, aspiring to be a successful entrepreneur.
On November 10, 2005, Adelfo was involved in a deadly car accident which left him paralyzed from the waist down as a T-12 paraplegic. Adelfo was initially torn down spiritually, mentally, and physically following the accident, but after one year, he embraced his physical condition with open arms, and used it as a driving tool to challenge and motivate himself.
Adelfo started body building in 2007 after being inspired by a youtube video of guys in wheelchairs posing and flexing at a body building competition. His life has been transformed ever since. Marisa called Adelfo early November 2014 asking if he'd be interested in being her wheelchair dance partner. Adelfo chose to take on the challenge, and is having a blast learning a new form of self-expression.
Marisa Hamamoto & Adelfo Cerame JR.
Kostiantyn Gridin