Maria was born in El paso texas and soon began singing and dancing. Her formal training began when her parents moved back to their home state of Connecticut. After her parents divorced at age six, home seemed to become a balance of the dance studio and her catholic schooling. She moved several times between the homes of different family members, but dancing and praying were a constant.

The sudden loss of her father at age 13, drew her to the light of understanding and healing as the only answer to sorrow, grief and darkness. Singing, dancing and praying carried her through a second loss at the age of 17 when her beloved uncle, who raised her past away. Her fathers truly were in heaven.

Along the path of light she fell into darkness of addiction, eating disorders and the restlessness of geographics in search of an answer. All the while maintaining her Catholic faith, she hopped from teaching to teaching in hopes of relief from the daily malady of the spirit.

As a successful singer/dancer her career took her around the world performing in Hawaii, Las Vegas, Florida, Mexico, England, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, China, Korea, Japan, Macau, Tawaiian, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. There were two people always there; her and god. Their relationship grew in their quiet times together and in the understanding of how the faithful worship around the world. From mountain high temples to Buddha in Korea, to the peaceful church of st. francis in bustling Tokyo, to a small shrine- stage right in Bangkok, god was there and maria was looking for him.

Her yoga practice began back in her hometown of Shelton ct when her mom brought her to her first class. Her mom told her that her father had been able to do a great headstand back in the day, and she was sold. Immediately she knew this would be part of her path. The pursuit of yoga led her to practice sivananda, hatha, vinyasa, bikram and kundalini and deepen her knowledge in studios around the world. She was often sneaking away to a temple, a church, a shrine, a desert, a beach or a mountaintop to pray and meditate. Sometimes just to laugh, sometimes just to cry.

Upon returning to New york, she found universal force healing center and the teachings of joseph Michael levry, gurunam, and in her subsequent travels to Europe and asia, studied his books and practiceD the mantra’s daily. A slow conversion began to take place while she continued performing on the ‘west side story 50th anniversary international tour’ with the help of his teachings and those of yogi bhajan.

She recorded her debut album ‘7th day creation’ in February of 2007, and in October of 2007 began her Naam yoga teacher training.

Naam is the perfect fusion of maria’s talents of voice and movement and her love of the esoteric traditions of kundalini yoga, universal kabbalah and christic wisdom.

She is a graduate of Virginia school of the arts with a degree in dance, and holds a Bachelor of music from the catholic university of America.
She is certified by dance masters of America, yoga alliance and the international naam teachers association. She shows compassion, grace and enthusiasm in her daily life and in teaching. Nowadays she finds no greater joy than letting the light of god find her so she can share it. There is no place else to run, the kingdom of god is like they say, ‘Within’