Maria Caruso

Maria Caruso grew up in Rural Valley, PA, outside of Pittsburgh. Caruso's mother and father split when she was young, and dance soon became a therapeutic outlet for her. Luba Takamoto was Maria's first influential teacher. Working with Takamoto instilled the academic value of dance in Caruso. Maria then studied at Sue Hewitt Dance Studio in Indiana, PA, and Hewitt became another of Maria's early mentors. Caruso graduated high school early, at age 16, and continued her education as a BFA student in Florida State University’s dance program. While studying at Florida State, Maria began to mature and no longer fit the traditional ballet body stereotypes. Anjali Austin, one of Maria's professors, became her mentor at FSU and helped her through this period. This inspired Caruso to later open a school that would serve the needs of dancers with non-stereotypical ballet bodies. After graduation from FSU and returning to Pittsburgh, Caruso earned a master's degree in professional leadership from Carlow College.

Caruso's performance career includes work with artists such as Anjali Austin, Ilana Suprun Clyde, Ze’eva Cohen, Lynne Taylor Corbett, Johan Renvall, and James Martin. Upon retirement from dancing with Bodiography in 2015, Caruso traveled the world with her solo work and continues to do so to date. In 2017, she created her first full-length mixed genre solo concert, titled Phoenix Rising, where she worked to incorporate genres of dance that she had never performed, such as hip-hop, lindy hop, and art installation, along with modern, contemporary, and ballet works. In 2018, Caruso was honored to receive a license from the to perform Martha Graham’s iconic Lamentation solo, for which she has continued to perform on select solo tours. This same year, she also premiered another solo show, titled Metamorphosis, at the Karmiel Dance Festival in Israel. Her performances of both were met with critical acclaim and she continues to tour with the work internationally. She has also reengaged with Bodiography performing lead roles with her company during thecompany's home season and on tour.

Bodiography Dance Movement Therapy System: The Healing Power of Dance and Movement for EveryBODY (2013) The profound results of Caruso's research, supported by Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield in 2014, catapulted the success of the Dance Movement Therapy program and provided a platform for training more dance movement therapy facilitators in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.

Bodiography Fitness and Strength Training System: The Ballet Workout for Every-BODY (2012)

Caruso founded Bodiography in New York City in 2000. The company was relocated to the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill at the historic site of Gene Kelly’s dance studio in 2001 and is home to a professional contemporary ballet company ballet company, a sister company in Charlotte, North Carolina, a company of retired artists in BCB3, a pre-professional company in BCB2, fitness and wellness programs, a dance injury clinic in partnership with UPMC Health Plan, and a dance conservatory with an accredited college preparatory program in collaboration with La Roche University. Bodiography Contemporary Ballet presents a multi-genre movement vocabulary including modern, jazz, and pedestrian movement solidly supported by the classical ballet technique. The teaching and performing artists of Bodiography engage in a full performance and tour season while maintaining educational outreach engagements at Bodiography Center for Movement, La Roche University, and a variety of public and private schools and arts education institutions in the region. Caruso's creation of the Bodiography® Fitness and Strength Training System is based on a system of compounding exercises with the utilization of multiple props in a mat based class. The program has found great success particularly on the east coast of the United States. With over 100 trained instructors in a variety of fitness and dance environments, the fitness system assists in spreading the company's over arching message of dance being an inclusive art form. Beyond the national reach of the program, the Bodiography® Fitness and Strength Training System classes can be found in many places in the Pittsburgh area, and Caruso's fitness video is available to the world having launched in June 2019. Since Since 2002, and a long-standing collaboration with Club One Fitness, Caruso and her artists continue to offer an array of fitness classes at both Bodiography and Club One locations. The creation of the Bodiography® Dance Movement Therapy System is based on the extraction of human emotion as a means of creative expression. Through the use of a choreographic algorithm, Caruso's system works to create movement structures and phrases based on the thoughts, feelings, and ideas of individuals with shared experiences. The movement therapy system is currently being utilized in a variety of hospitals, schools, and behavioral health programs across the US through certified facilitators.

Maria Caruso (born October 12, 1980) is an American dancer and choreographer, best known as the founder and artistic director of Bodiography Contemporary Ballet, and creator of the Bodiography Fitness and Strength Training System and the Bodiography Dance Movement Therapy System. Caruso is currently the chair of the Performing Arts Department and director of the dance program at La Roche University.