MARIA JESSEE joined Southwest Virginia Ballet’s Company in 2007. A 2012 graduate of Roanoke Catholic School, Maria spent her summers training at Richmond Ballet and Orlando Ballet.  She traveled to Prague, Czech Republic in the summer of 2011, where she performed with SVB in the New Prague Dance Festival.

Under the direction of Artistic Director Pedro Szalay, Maria performed many roles for SVB, including Winter Fairy in Cinderella, Clara, Dew Drop and Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, and Firebird (2012) in The Firebird.  She worked as the Head RA Joffrey Ballet’s West Los Angeles summer intensives.  She has taken master classes from world renowned principal dancers, including Gillian Murphy and Julie Kent. In her second year of college, she came back to SVB as a Guest Artist in The Nutcracker, dancing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Maria received her BA in Dance Pedagogy from Butler University in Indianapolis, a top school for ballet instruction and performance in the US.  After living and working in New York City for 2 years, she is currently living in Roanoke.

She is a Master Aesthetician at Aesthetic Surgery of Virginia, a ballet teacher at Star City School of Ballet and Ballet Mistress for Southwest Virginia Ballet.