Mariangela Lopez is a Brooklyn-based dance artist and educator from Caracas, Venezuela. Since 1999, she has built extensive experience teaching dance to different communities across the country and abroad, from professional dancers to college students, public schools (Pre K-12), and communities at risk. She is a faculty member at The Dance Education Laboratory (DEL), where she writes curriculums, facilitates workshops for dance educators, and mentors NYC Pre-K teachers through the DOE program, CREATE. She also teaches at the 92NY CALL program, where she has facilitated workshops for public school students, from pre-K-12th grade. Mariangela was the dance teacher at Blue School, NYC (2013-2022), where she introduced and developed the dance curriculum for pre-K- 8th grade. She was the Associate Director of Community Programs for Gina Gibney Dance (2002-2009), where she created a program that brings dance to children living in shelters for survivors of Domestic Violence in New York City.
Mariangela has served as a teaching artist and panelist for different institutions and universities in the U.S and abroad. She was a faculty member for the Certification Program at the Laban Institute of Movement Studies, NYC, and has taught at Movement Research, Gibney Dance, 92nd Street Y, NY, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange, among many others. In addition, Mariangela was the Coordinator of the Adventures in Dance Program at Ballet Hispánico School of Dance (2010-2013). She is a certified Somatic Movement Educator (SME) from the School of Body-Mind Centering ® and is currently pursuing her certification as an Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME) at the School of Body Mind Centering ®. Mariangela is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies (2001), a Certified Yoga Teacher from Yoga Union, NYC (2003) and holds a Certification in Foundations of Dance Education from Dance Education Laboratory (DEL), NYC (2009). Mariangela is a graduate from the Boston Conservatory where she obtained her BFA degree in Dance and Choreography (1999).
In her teaching, Mariangela applies her knowledge in Modern Dance, Composition, Improvisation, Yoga, Creative Movement, Ballet, Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Motif Writing (Language of Dance), and Somatic Movement. Her primary goal as a teacher is to provide an experience in class in which each participant feels validated as a unique individual, with the ability to make choices and celebrate the joy and empowerment of Movement.