For Mariona, dance is a language of self-expression, cultural preservation, healing, connection, and freedom.
A professionally trained dancer and choreographer with more than 20 years of performance experience, Mariona began her movement practice with ten years of classical ballet training in Barcelona under renowned ballet master Maite Bisetti. Her practice has since expanded across Hip Hop, Latin, and Brazilian dance, and she is a certified Hip Hop and Latin dance instructor.
Her lifelong connection to Brazilian culture began in childhood through her father’s Bossa Nova collection and has grown into a deep, ongoing practice of Brazilian dance and music. Over the past fifteen years, she has studied and performed Brazilian dance in both the United States and Brazil, including performing at Rio Carnival as a Muse.
Rooted in rhythm, sensuality, joy, and collective movement, Mariona’s dance practice explores the connections between cultures and the ways movement carries memory across borders and generations.
Her latest project, VENT, created, choreographed, and performed in collaboration with Inès Ouegdraogo, is a journey through their shared Mediterranean roots, their paths as immigrants in America, and their love for samba. Through rhythm, movement, and memory, they explore the threads that connect North Africa, Catalonia, and the African diaspora.
Through performance and choreography, Mariona celebrates dance as both a personal and collective experience that brings us back to ourselves and to one another.