Born in Lisbon, she studied dance with Anna Mascolo. Later, in London she studied with Errol Addison, Anna Northcote and Anna Marie Holmes and in Monte Carlo with Marika Besobrasova, where she began her professional career.
During her stay abroad, she was also a dancer with the Opera de Marseille and the Ballet de Marseille, under the direction of Roland Petit. With the latter company she participated in several tours, including one to the Soviet Union..
On her return to Portugal, she joined the Grupo de Bailados Verde Gaio from 1974 to 1977. In 1977, the year the CNB was founded, she joined the cast of this company, where she has been since. Maria danced most of the company’s repertoire and participated in several original creations, among which she highlights Les Sylphides (Waltz), Graduation Ball (The Romantic Girl) and Suite Medieval (Serena).
Her career took a new turn when Artistic Director Armando Jorge called on her to fill the position of Ballet Mistress and Rehearsal Director. She worked with and assisted innumerable choreographers and ballet masters, among which Patricia Neary, Oscar Arraiz, Terry Westmoreland, John Auld, Armando Jorge, Georges Garcia, Lynn Wallis, Michel Renault, Francesca Zumbo, Eric Volodine, Maya Volodina, Monica Parker, Hans Brenaa, Glenn Tuggle, Victoria Simon, Michael Corder, Howard Sayette.
Between 1990 and 1996 she was also Assistant to the Artistic Director.
She has been responsible for the staging of many ballets of CNB's Repertoire, namely Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker (Petipa/A.Jorge), La Sylphide, Coppélia, Petruchka, Sonho de uma Noite de Verão (A.Jorge), Paquita, La Bayadére, Les Sylphides, Raymonda, Prelúdios, D. Quixote (Petipa/Volodine), Suite en Blanc, Carmina Burana, Concerto (McMillan), Sleeping Beauty, Napoli, Graduation Ball, Les Noces and the works of Georges Balanchine: Serenade, Concerto Barroco, Apollo, The Four Temperaments, Theme and Variations, Who Cares? and Apollo.
As well as her duties as Ballet Mistress with the CNB, Maria has been invited by other companies to stage several ballets and as Ballet Mistress.
The Nijinska Foundation extended her an invitation and, as their representative she staged and rehearsed Les Noces for the Companhia de Bailado do Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. For the same company she also rehearsed and staged The Nutcracker (A. Jorge) and Raymonda - Act III (Petipa).
In 2003 Maria, with the accordance of The Balanchine Foundation, rehearsed and staged Serenade and Concerto Barroco for the National Ballet of Slovenia, final staging together with Ms N. Gluchack.
In 2008, for the São Paulo Companhia de Dança, São Paulo, Brazil she mounted and staged B. Nijinska's Les Noces.
