Biography
“From the streets of a small island in Spain, with musical parents and carnival all around
me, Music and Dance have always been part of my life. When I was 10 years old, I
joined the Music School of Gran Canaria, to learn piano and music reading. My parents
have a music group for as long as I remember, and I was always part of the Christmas
Carrol choir, not just as a singer but, as I got older, I turned into the official movement
director. I joined different dance companies in Gran Canaria, from The Official Silvia
Barrera salsa company to the Jose Manuel Barrera Dance school for ballet and Urban.
During my years in high school, a passion for theatre and being able to perform became
stronger and this resulted in me moving to Seville to study at the Performing Art School
of Seville, with the speciality of Musical Theatre, Acting and Physical Theatre. After
finishing my degree, I decided that London was where my future was, from the classical
Shakespeare to the West end, there was a whole world for a tiny Spaniard to explore.
During my first 3 years in London, I trained Ballet with the National English Ballet and
with Juan Rodriguez at the Royal Academy of Dance, to develop my technique. At the
same time, my love for hip-hop was calling me and decided to train more into the style
with the help of Project Pac and their Pac Academy programme. This brought me back
to my love of hip-hop and commercial, which gave me the opportunity to perform for the
Project Pac showcase. During the pandemic, having as much time as we did, another
love appeared, and this was K-pop. Through this new hobbies I found the KMDC dance
school, where I not just trained into the different k-pop techniques and styles, film
professional dance cover, or perform in catwalk like the KOLLAB programme for the
Korean brand HANJAC, but where I have been teaching for the past 2 years. During my
time at KMDC, I’ve been able to teach K-pop, my own choreography to different styles
(Jazz, Hip-hop, commercial, Lyrical and Heels) and direct 4 different dance covers. I
love teaching because it gives me the opportunity to meet wonderful people, support
them to become the amazing dancers that they can be and provide a supportive and
save space for them to express themselves. I love dance because it’s a different
language, it gives you sometimes the opportunity to express things that can be difficult
to express with words. I can wait to see what you all have to say and to be part of your
amazing journey ahead.”
Maria teaches Commercial Dance on Tuesdays in Birmingham.