Mariah Appleton

(she/her)

(TNC Coach, Recreational classes)

Mariah Appleton is a professional choreographer, freelance performer, and dance educator from Montgomery County, Maryland. She began her dance training at the age of two and has developed extensive experience across a wide range of disciplines, with an emphasis on ballet, lyrical, jazz, contemporary, tap, hip-hop, and modern dance. Mariah received her early training at Spotlight Studio of Dance under the direction of Wyndee McGovern and Anatoli Kucheruk, whose mentorship played an instrumental role in developing her technical foundation and artistic eye. She continued to expand her training through prestigious summer programs and intensives, including New York City Dance Alliance, Broadway Dance Center, Kirov Academy, Steps on Broadway, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Jazz World Congress, Eastern Cheer and Dance Association, West Coast Dance Explosion, and numerous ballet intensives throughout the East Coast. During her final two years of high school, she traveled throughout the country with Eastern Cheer and Dance Association, teaching dance clinics and sharing her knowledge with students and aspiring dancers nationwide.

Mariah graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) with dual bachelor's degrees in Dance and Psychology. As a performer, she has worked with Misako Ballet Company, Kinetics Dance Company, ROOTED Dance Productions, Essenza, Christopher K. Morgan & Artists, as well as performed with Sesame Street Live!, A Capitol Fourth, and in the NFL ProBowl in Honolulu, Hawaii, with the Backstreet Boys. As a member of ROOTED Dance Productions, she performed with Shange Dance Productions at venues throughout the region, including Dance Place, the American Dance Institute, Howard University, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. She has also performed extensively with Kinetics Dance Company and became a guest choreographer for the company in 2017.

For more than two decades, Mariah has dedicated herself to educating and inspiring dancers throughout Maryland, Virginia, and the surrounding region. She is a guest choreographer within public school systems throughout Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Hartford, Howard, and Montgomery Counties, as well as across Virginia, Delaware, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. She has received numerous choreography awards at regional and national competitions over her career. Her choreography has been recognized for its creativity, technical precision, and ability to challenge dancers artistically while maintaining a strong foundation in movement quality. She continues teaches master classes throughout the East Coast, and works with competitive dance companies as an artistic director, choreographer, and educator. Her teaching philosophy centers on developing technically proficient, expressive dancers while emphasizing proper body mechanics, movement quality, and a comprehensive understanding of the body. Mariah is also a certified Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) teacher and continues to pursue opportunities that allow her to mentor dancers, collaborate with artists, and contribute to the growth and development of the dance community.