Maria Piedad is a choreographer, teacher, and dance theorist with a 26-year artistic career across Ecuador, Cuba, and the U.S. She graduated from the Cuban National Ballet School, the NYU-ABT and NYU-Tisch master’s programs. As an ABT-NTC Certified Teacher she has presented students for ABT examinations and worked at the ABT-JKO School. Maria was on faculty at American Youth Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico, Brooklyn Ballet, Long Island Ballet Theatre, CUNY, among others. In Ecuador, she was artistic advisor and choreographer for Danzas, Performing Arts Center and ProDanza, Commercial Dance Company. A K–12 dance educator at the American and German Schools in Quito and faculty at the Alejo Carpentier Ballet School in Havana. She began her professional career in 1996 as a dancer with the National Ballet of Ecuador later becoming its Rehearsal Director.
Professional Accomplishments
- ABT NTC Fellowship Award 2017-2021
- ABT Affiliate Teacher Award 2015-2018
- ABT NTC Proctor for Teaching Oral Exams 2015-2021
- Paris Opera Ballet School Cross-Threads Program with Elizabeth Platel, 2017
- Artistic Adviser & Choreographer, Danzas-Ecuador, Performing Arts Center,
- 2015-2019
- Lew and Eddie Wasserman Scholarship, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
- M. A. in Performance Studies, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
- M. A. in Teaching Dance in the Professions: The American Ballet Theatre
- Pedagogy, NYU Steinhardt
- ABT NTC Certified Teacher in Pre-Primary through Level 7 & Partnering, 2013 to present
- Teaching Assistant ABT-JKO school, working at ABT’s Nutcracker, 2013-2014
- NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development Scholarship 2012 and 2013
- B. A. in Applied Linguistics, 2010
- Rehearsal Director and Ballet Mistress, National Ballet of Ecuador, staging full-length productions including Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, The Three Musketeers, The Taming of the Shrew, and other classical and contemporary works, 2004-2008
- Artistic Director, Choreographer and Dancer, Pro-Danza-Ecuador, Commercial
- Dance Company 2001-2012
- Professional Diploma in Ballet, Character & Historical Dance Teaching, Fernando Alonso National Ballet School of Cuba, 2000
- Faculty, Alejo Carpentier Elementary Ballet School, Havana, Cuba, 1999-2000
- Outstanding International Student, Cuban National Ballet School, 1998, 1999 and 2000
- Best Graduate, National Dance Institute of Ecuador, 1997
- Conservatory Diploma, Ballet & Modern Dance Major, National Dance Institute of Ecuador, 1997
- Dancer, National Ballet of Ecuador, 1996-1997 Her Mentors and Teachers: Mirtha Hermida, Ramona de Saá, Adria Velázquez, Jaime Pinto-Riveros, Raymond Lukens, Franco de Vita, Harriet Clark, Kate Lydon, Caridad Martínez, among others
