María Cardona: Choreographer, Dancer, and Dance Teacher.
Her works are inspired by musicality, individuality, expressiveness, and humanism, concepts which Cardona develops visually within a formally structured choreography which is full of clarity, fluidity and with a very defined style.
From the city of Cartagena, she began Dance at a very early age. After obtaining her professional Classical Ballet teaching degree at the Professional Dance Conservatoire of Murcia she continued her Classical Dance studies in the International Choreography Centre of Granada where she was soloist of the company based there and also with Victor Ullate and Carmina Ocaña in their ballet studies in Madrid where she also studies Jazz Dance with Carmen Senra.
After completing her studies at the University of Granada's School of Translation Maria lived in Brussels where she undertook courses in New Dance and Release with Tony Thacher and Cunningham Technique with Anne Papulis and Marianne Schotte in the ContraDanse Centre. Moving to London she specialized in Release Technique taking classes with Scott Clark, Paul Douglas, Lauren Potter and Gill Clark. Shortly afterwards Maria was awarded a grant from the Andalusian Regional Council to perfect her studies to date abroad. In London she was able to complete a degree in Contemporary Dance from the University of Middlesex with specialities in Interpretation and Choreography at their prestigious Dance department, renowned in the United Kingdom for its vanguard creativity in the world of Contemporary Dance.
At Middlesex University she developed further diverse techniques of Contemporary Dance with a faculty specialized in the field, famous for their curriculums and experience in performance at both national and international level such as Lesley Main, disciple of Ernestine Stodelle, in Humphrey Technique, Judy Sharp in Release, Maggie White and Karen Bell Kanner in Graham Technique. In Choreographic Study Maria had as her tutors renowned names such as Emilyn Claid, Rosemary Butcher and Nigel Charnock.
After graduating with a Dance degree at the University of Middlesex, where Maria felt highly inspired by the technique developed by Doris Humphrey, she travelled to New York City to continue her study of the Humphrey / Limon Technique with Ruth Currier, Jim May as well as working in Choreography with Nina Weiner and Elisa Monte there. At the same time Maria began her work in investigation on Doris Humphrey and Jose Limon and the origins of Contemporary Dance in the New York City Library for the Performing Arts and at the Limon Foundation. On completion, upon returning to London, Maria continued to study Humphrey Technique with Gail Corbin and Release with Lance Gries.
During this time Maria already had already started to demonstrate her first choreographies at The Place Theatre London, at Morley College and also at Middlesex University's Dance Theatre where she also performed as a dancer.
After taking residence once more in Spain, Maria formalized her own choreographic project Maria Cardona Dance whilst continuing her work in investigation and formation such as the choreographic workshops she undertook with the renowned American choreographer Mark Morris in Edinburgh or during her stay in Massachussettes in order to undertake investigation at the Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival archives.
In the field of professional dance teaching Maria's experience is wide. Maria finds this aspect of her work immensely satisfying and considers it to be a vital way to creativity.
Maria participates in collaboration with other artists and other disciplines such as Theatre and Music.