Maria Caruso

Maria Caruso (born October 12, 1980) is a Pittsburgh native dancer, choreographer, academic, social activist, fitness and wellness practitioner, and entrepreneur whose enterprise encompasses brand models focused in the arts, education, entertainment, and wellbeing sectors. Caruso's multifaceted conglomerate comprises five performance companies, a dance conservatory, a fitness program, and a dance movement therapy system, all under the auspices of the Bodiography brand. The alliance of organizations under her leadership include a production syndicate titled M-Train Productions, a fully functional multipurpose dance studio and performance space in her Movement Factory, the dance conservatory Bodiography Center for Movement, an affiliation with an academic institution of higher learning at La Roche University where she chairs the Performing Arts Department, and a publication known as the Arts Inclusive. All the encompassing entities led by Ms. Caruso's vision are known for their commitment to health and wellness in the arts and their championing of positive change in communities regionally and globally.

Personal life

Caruso is married to Dr. Alan Russell. Dr. Russell is the Vice President of Biologics at Amgen. Caruso has five step-children.

Early Training

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 University.

Dance performance career

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 Martha Graham Resources 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.

Acting career

Caruso had her acting debut in 2020 playing a leading role, Connie Scuccifuffio, in Anthony J Wilkinson's My Big Gay Italian Midlife Crisis, directed by Sonia Blangiardo.

Bodiography

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, now called Maria Caruso’s Bodiography, 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. 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.

Bodiography Leadership

Kelly Basil – Assistant director of Bodiography Center for Movement
Kirstie Corso – Director of the Bodiography Center for Movement Student Company
Lauren Suflita Skrabalak – Bodiography Rehearsal Director

Entrepreneurship

In 2020, Caruso announced her expansion into several new facets of business including her presenting and publishing branches and the development of her new performing arts facility, The Movement Factory, in the North Shore of Pittsburgh, PA. The Movement Factory, opening in September 2021, will offer a 175 seat theater, 4 studios, classrooms, offices, and a home to M-Train Productions and The Arts Inclusive. M-Train Productions is the presenting arm focused on commercial and industrial works and is the producer of Caruso’s latest Off-Broadway show, Rearview Mirror, opening at New York City’s St. Luke’s Theater in 2020. The Arts Inclusive, the publishing arm, is Caruso’s online magazine focused on insights, previews, and reviews of the world’s best arts presentations, and slated to begin circulation in 2021.

Choreography by Caruso

126 Total Works to Date
4 Full-length Ballets with Original Scores
2 Full-length Theater Installations with Original Scores
21 Full-length Ballets without Original Scores
47 Concert Works
3 Concert Work with Original Score
14 Solo Works
25 Commissions

Emergence Dance Company
Bermuda Civic Ballet
Graham 2
Skidmore College
Mercyhurst University
Butler Community College
Sounds of Jewish Music Festival (4 works)
Open Door Studio Pre-Professional Company
Warped Dance Company
Winthrop University
Northwest School for the Arts
Charlotte Dance Festival
Falling Water’s 75 th Anniversary
Laurel Youth Ballet
Fluidity Dance Company (3 works)
Brooks and Company Dance
North Allegheny High School
Garrett Lakes Arts Festival
Elsie Awards Honoring Rob Marshall

9. 10 Collegiate Works

Psalm 23 (2020)
Light of Love II (2020)
No Strings Attached (2020)
Provenance (2019)
Rearview Mirror (2019
Vespers (2019)
Billboard (2019)
Prism (2019)
Air (2019)
Light of Love Remastered (2019)
Runaway Runway (2019)
Valley of Her (2019)
Isabelle De Borchgrave Exhibition (2018)
Submerged (2018)
Break the Verse (2018)
Really?! (2018)
Michaelangelo (2018)
Doors and Windows (2018)
Unblemished Disclosure (2017)
Changed Again (2017)
Shapes of Us (2017)
My Mozart (2017)
Connectivity Suite (2017)
Kindred Pulse (2017)
Lullaby (2017)
Justice and Joanne (2017)
Walkways (2017)
I Am Now (2017)
Pathways (2017)
Tempered (2017)
Meditation of Killer Heels (2016)
Change (2016)
The Lending Heart (2016)
Uncharted Grace (2016)
Parabola (2016)
Jointly Driven (2015)
My Journey (2015)
Light of Love (2015)
Messiah (2015)
Charlotte Dance Festival - Within the Confines (2015)
Curious Spirals (2015)
I Will Be Earth (2015)
Snowflakes in the Cemetery (2015)
Light of Love (2015)
Life Tides (2015)
Laudate (2015)
Follow the Light (2015)
Fauré Requiem (2014)
Ave Maria (2014)
Left Leg, Right Brain (The Frank Ferraro Story) (2014)
Lux Aeterna (2013)
Bonsoir (2013)
Led by Light (2013)
Whispers of Light (2013)
Day Awakening (2013)
From Above (2013)
Parlour (2012)
Hallelujah (2012)
Our Notebook (2012)
5 Hebrew Love Songs (2012)
Pieces of My Puzzle (2012)
From Me To You (2012)
Carmina Burana (2012)
Untitled (2012)
Fractured and Rebuilt (2012)
Somebody (2012)
Eyes Off You (2012)
Eyes Wide Open (2012)
Sectional Sentiments (2011)
Wet (2011)
108 Minutes (2011)
Bodi (2011)
Heart (Function vs. Emotion) (2010)
Pas de Deux (2010)
No More Bad Hair Days (2009)
Intimate Liaisons (2009)
The String (2009)
Something About Nothing (2009)
Ognissanti Madonna (2008)
At My Cliff (2008)
Journey (2008)
Bound (2008)
Solace (2008 Restaged – Original 2005)
Mentality Toiled Empathy (2007)
Kaleidoscope (2007)
Timeless (2006)
The Recital (2006)
Reflections (2006)
Love Lines (2005)
80's Rock (2004)
Tied and Bound (2004)
Living Successions (2003)
Millennium Confusion (2002)
Given (2002)
Smoke (2002)
18 Months (2002)
Envisage (2002)
Ascension (2001)
Relativity (2001)
Transit Euphony (2000)

Presentations

Tedx Talk (2016)

Writing

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)

Recognition

Young Pittsburgher to Watch (2009)
“America Inspired” Contest - Top 25 finalist (2011)
Real Wedding: Maria Caruso + Alan Russell - Whirl Magazine (2015)
2016 Fast Tracker - Pittsburgh Business Times (2016)
Genius of Choreography - The Future Health Technology Summit (2016)
Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition's Squirrel Hill Treasure (2017)
Caruso was recognized in Dance Magazine (2020) https://www.dancemagazine.com/ballet-body-2646451850.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2

References

External links

http://company.bodiography.com//index.cfm?aid=3&artist=maria_caruso&CFID=25380445&CFTOKEN=480b3b8b418024b0-D67C8BF6-5056-8708-7564B42CECF18831

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