MCG
Photo credit: Carlos Funn
serves as the Artistic Director at Reel.Dance.Music and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ. Growing up in the thriving artistic environments of New York City and Rome, Italy, she was heavily influenced by her creative surroundings. Her father, the legendary Jazz bassist Jimmy Garrison, was a long-standing member of the world-renowned John Coltrane Quartet. Her mother, Roberta Escamilla Garrison, is a distinguished choreographer in Italy and the founder of the dance department at St. Stephen's School Rome.
Maia Claire began her journey in childhood as a competitive gymnast, earning gold medals on every apparatus. At the age of 10 she was spotted by The Big Apple Circus. Over the next two years, she trained in circus arts and became a member of The Back Street Flyers’ circus act, performing and touring as a child acrobat.
Maia
Claire
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Now possessing a Bachelor of Arts degree, she toured across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America as a dancer, singer, and actress with the renowned Urban Bush Women, directed by Jawole Zollar.
In '95 with a desire to hone her skills as a choreographer she established M’Zawa Danz. Along with some of her contemporaries, she played a key role in popularizing the synthesis of modern dance with African diasporic dance forms.
Following the sudden passing of her father, her family relocated to Rome, Italy, where she maintained her national-level gymnastics competitions. Shortly thereafter, she transitioned from gymnastics to dance, and by the age of fifteen, she joined her first professional troupe, Afro Danza. Her early dance mentors included the company director, Bob Curtis, and her mother, Roberta Escamilla Garrison.
After graduating from St. Stephen's School Rome, she was admitted to Sarah Lawrence College, where she advanced her studies in Dance Education, Health & Physical Education, Choreography, and Performance Production.
Karin Bacon Events, NYC 1977
Photo Credit: George Larkins
M'Zawa Danz
Maia Claire has received multiple Artist Grants and Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has choreographed, produced, and staged multi-disciplinary dance performances, composed music, and co-produced studio recordings, frequently collaborating with her siblings—ShapeShifter Lab owner and bassist Matthew Garrison, Jazz vocalist Joy Garrison, and brother-in-law Fabrizio Aiello—all of whom are esteemed and celebrated artists in their fields.
In 2010, she gave birth to her son, Salif Alessandro. At the age of three, he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. That same year, she started the School Health Education program at New Jersey City University and served as a Teaching Artist for The Joyce Theater Dance Education Program. While pursuing her Master of Science in Health Sciences, she also enrolled in various Special Education courses to better comprehend her son's neurological differences.
Photo Credit: Carlos Funn
In 2014, while living in Altamonte Springs, Florida Garrison taught at O2B Kids Altamonte, and earned a certification in Dance K-12 from the Florida Department of Education, along with certificates in Child Growth and Development (CGDR), Culturally Competent Nursing Care (CCNC), Health, Safety and Nutrition (HSAN), and Special Needs Appropriate Practices (SNP). Committed to developing enrichment programs that cater to children and youth on the Autism spectrum, in 2017 she founded Sequence of Leaps (SOL). The following year in partnership with Speech Innovations of Central Florida she launched A Berry Special Day, A Learning Adventure Tailored for Children with Autism.
Maia Claire actively leads her signature workshops in NYC as well as in Orange and West Orange, NJ. Alongside this, she directs and choreographs dance videos, composes songs, and produces dynamic, dance-focused, multi-disciplinary performances that captivate and delight audiences through-out The Greater NY Area and abroad.
