Mariah Lopez is a Spanish American choreographer, educator, researcher, and painter whose work bridges performance, scholarship, and community engagement. She holds a B.A. in Dance and International Relations from Rider University and is a graduate of the Dance ICONS Choreographic Institute under the direction of Vladimir Angelov. Mariah earned her MFA in Dance and Choreography from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee as a recipient of the Advanced Opportunity Program Fellowship.Based in Virginia, Mariah has presented commissioned and adjudicated works across New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Her choreography has been featured in commercial competitions and prestigious international platforms, including Youth America Grand Prix and ADC IBC.

Under her mentorship, students have placed and earned scholarships at both competitions, an achievement that reflects her commitment to cultivating technically strong, artistically compelling dancers. Mariah’s movement language is rooted in emotional risk-taking and truth-telling. Her creative research investigates social inequality, somatic practice, and the embodiment of cross-generational trauma. She crafts work that is physically rigorous and conceptually layered, inviting performers and audiences alike into spaces of vulnerability, resilience, and transformation.

As an educator, Mariah integrates dance history, pedagogy, and conditioning methodologies to develop strength, clarity, and refined articulation. Her teaching emphasizes mental training, intentionality, and performance presence, equipping dancers with both technical excellence and expressive depth. She is an ABT® Certified Teacher who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. Mariah currently serves as Assistant Professor of Dance at Christopher Newport University, Ballet Director, and community educator and choreographer. She is also a PhD student and Research Assistant at Old Dominion University, where her scholarly work continues to explore dance as both embodied practice and critical inquiry.

Photograph by Debbie Lawrence