Maria is a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (R-DMT), creative and performing arts educator, and choreographer who first encountered yoga decades ago as a mandated part of her classical ballet training. It was not love at first practice, but she continued to spend time on the mat intermittently for years until finding her hOMe--and a powerful, life-altering steady practice--at Yoga Innovations in 2018. When she's not practicing yoga, she enjoys voraciously consuming literature, dance in all forms, vintage fashion, immersive theatre, writing, crafting the perfect playlist, empowering folx to find their most authentic selves via creative expression, and spending time with her family and cats. Maria's peers describe her as authentic, passionate, radiant, "a jazz club in human form," and loving AF. (Seriously.) Her classes are deeply informed by her training in movement, body-based psychotherapy and mindfulness practices, and you can expect creatively sequenced, dance-inspired flows; mudras; and an emphasis on positive self-regard from your practice with her. Yoga helps Maria steady an untidy mind and find stillness amidst life's chaos, and she endeavors to provide the same for her students.