In 2004, she became the President of the Salsa club, which grew from several dozen to over a thousand members. Under her leadership, the club offered several levels of Salsa classes to over 300 students annually. In 2005, she started a Salsa performance team, which performed her choreographies at various student events and travelled for demonstrations to Indianapolis and Chicago. Prior to moving to Kansas City, Mariya danced “On 1”. She participated in Salsa classes from the Latin Street Dancing, a Chicago’s premier salsa dance studio and traveled to major Salsa congresses and events in the US (LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit) and abroad (Toronto, Singapore, St. Petersburg).  Additional workshops from Billy Fajardo and Katie Marlow, Sekou McMiller, Edie “the Salsa Freak”, Juan Calderon, Al Espinosa, Ana Masacote, Jorge Elizondo, and other salsa instructors have made her a better dancer and instructor. To master the proper dance technique, she took several semesters of ballet and received basic training in modern dance and jazz.

Her career as a professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas brought her to the Kansas City Area, where she met Josh Hernandez. Partnership with Josh opened up new dancing horizons. Under his mentorship, Mariya learned to dance “On 2” and improved her performing and instructional skills. Since joining KCSalsa, in the summer of 2007, she has been training and performing with the KCSalsa team. 

Maria is now the Co-Director of the KCSalsa Performance Group and teaches a various Salsa classes in the KCSalsa program.

In 2009 she

• Performed at the Larry Harlow Concert in Kansas City,
• Performed at the Royals’ Game - Kauffman Stadium and
• Managed the KCSalsa Dancers.

Dances:

Latin: Salsa/Mambo (On1, On2), Cha-cha-cha, bachata

Others: Argentine Tango, Swing/Lindy