Maria Broom

Maria Broom is a storyteller, dancer, teacher and actress from Baltimore, with over forty years of performing and teaching in the US and globally. She is nationally known for recurring roles in HBO's "The Wire" and "The Corner," and is a Fulbright scholar and former news reporter for the ABC affiliates in Miami and Baltimore. She is on the theater faculty at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Her teaching draws on yoga, meditation, Homa therapy and dance therapy. She leads staff retreats, workshops and weekly classes meant to help people release stress and feel at peace. Her offerings include world dance (traditional Hula, mudras and dance steps from India, and simple movements from North Africa), private dance and movement sessions, voice coaching that begins with the Vedic Primordial Sound Technique, and guided meditation and stillness practice. She also leads "Dance Medicine," a class of stretching and dancing to world music.

As "Miss Maria, the StoryDancer," she performs stories, story poems and story dances for schools, libraries, camps, festivals, conferences and retreats, with interactive, uplifting lessons for children, teachers and families.

Maria founded the Dance Girls of Baltimore, a mentoring program in inner city schools and beyond, through an Open Society Institute community fellowship grant. Her honors include the Eubie Blake Award, the Sarah's Circle Award and the 2004 Governor's Arts Award for Individual Artist.