MAYA SOTO is a choreographer, performer and award winning arts educator. She is a member of Catapult Dance Company and a successful independent artist. She is a recipient of the Velocity Dance Champion Award (2014) for significant contribution to Seattle dance. Her vast body of work includes concert performance, movement installations, dance for theater and for film. Athleticism, embodied movement and rhythmic dynamics are pillars of her work. She brings together classical dance training and a sense of play and entertainment. She has created and produced seven evening-length shows over the last 13 years. Her choreography has been featured in every major dance festival in the Northwest including OTB/Northwest New Works Festival (SEA), BOOST Dance Festival (SEA), Pacific Dance Makers (PDX), Seattle International Dance Festival (SEA) and Conduit’s Dance+ Festival (PDX). Maya is originally from the Portland area and has been calling Seattle home since 1999. Over the years, she has worked with many notable artists/companies including Amy O’Neal, KT Neihoff, Sandstrommovement, and LeGendre Performance Group. From 2003-2012, she co-directed collaborative dance company, Northwest Dance Syndrome. Passionate about arts education, Maya teaches weekly modern technique classes at Velocity Dance Center and is on faculty at the Northwest School and Exit Space School of Dance. She has taught at Cornish College of the Arts, Bellevue College, The International Ballet School and Seattle International Dance Festival’s intensive program – The Threshold Institute. She is currently a teaching artist for Seattle Theater Group, Disney Musicals in Schools and the EMP Museum. Maya is a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts.