Maria-Elena Marso
I don't mold young artists into a technique, a line, a split, or a move. I give them the foundation—and then I watch what they do with it.
After fifty years in dance, I know that technique matters. Discipline matters. Strength, safety, repetition, and understanding your craft matter enormously. But technique is the language, not the story.
I am not interested in asking the next generation to repeat someone else's journey.
They are here to create their own.
Aerial dance is still a young and evolving art form. There are movements that haven't been invented yet, stories that haven't been told, and ways of using these apparatuses that none of us have imagined. Why would we teach young artists that everything worth discovering has already been discovered?
My role is to give them the tools, the knowledge, the discipline, and the guidance earned through fifty years in dance—and then make room.
Let them question. Let them experiment. Let them fail beautifully and try again. Let them discover movement that doesn't look like mine.
I don't want to mold the next generation of aerial artists. I want to see what they mold aerial dance into.
— Maria-Elena Marso
Founder & Artistic Director
Florida Aerial Dance & Circus Arts
