Maria Piedad is a choreographer, teacher, and dance theorist with a 26-year artistic career across Ecuador, Cuba, and the US. She graduated from the Cuban National Ballet School and the NYU/ABT & Tisch master’s programs. As an ABT/NTC Certified Teacher she has presented students for ABT examinations & served as proctor for ABT-NTC teacher exams. Maria has been faculty at AYDT, Ballet Hispanico, Brooklyn Ballet, Long Island Ballet Theatre, etc. She has been artistic advisor & choreographer for Danzas Performing Arts Center, teaching assistant at the ABT-JKO, Artistic Director, choreographer & dancer of ProDanza-Ecuador. A K–12 dance educator at the German and American Schools in Quito and faculty at Alejo Carpentier Ballet School. 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 2017-2021
- ABT Affiliate Teacher Award 2015-2018
- ABT NTC Proctor for Teaching Exams
- 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 New York, NY Tisch School of the Arts
- M. A. in Teaching Dance in the Professions: The American Ballet Theatre Pedagogy, 2014
- ABT-NTC Certified Teacher in Primary through Level 7 & partnering, 2013-present
- Teaching Assistant ABT-JKO school 2013-2014, working at ABT’s Nutcracker
- Scholarship, NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, 2012 & 2013
- B. A. in Applied Linguistics, 2010
- Rehearsal Director & Ballet Mistress, National Ballet of Ecuador 2004-2008, staging full-length productions of Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, The Three Musketeers, The Taming of the Shrew, and other classical and contemporary works.
- Artistic Director, Choreographer & Dancer, Pro-Danza-Ecuador, Commercial Dance Company 2001-2012
- Ballet, Character & Historical Dance Teacher, Cuban National Ballet School, 2000
- Faculty, Alejo Carpentier Ballet School, Havana, Cuba, 1999-2000
- Outstanding International Student, Cuban National Ballet School, 1998, 1999 & 2000
- Best Graduate, National Dance Institute of Ecuador, 1997
- High School-Conservatory Diploma, Ballet and Modern Dance Major, National Dance Institute of Ecuador, 1997
- Dancer, National Ballet of Ecuador, 1996-1997
