Maria Montes de Oca holds a degree in Modern Dance from the National University of Costa Rica, her native counry, where she studied under Elena Gutierrez, Nandayure Harley, Julian Calderon, and Jorge Ramirez. Since 1989, she has lived in the U.S., performing and studying in Texas and Arizona, under Cliff Keuter.

She has performed, choreographed and taught in Mexico, Venezuela, and Costa Rica. Locally, she has performed with Chrysalis, Mudslide, Karen Stokes, Priscilla Nathan-Murphy, Brotes Art Project, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater and is a cofounder of Weave Dance Company. She was selected to coreograph for the Jewish community Center's "Coreographers X 6" in 1997 and 2002.

Maria is a recipient of a CACHH 1998 Individual Artist Fellowship Grant. She has taught dance at the Fay School, the Texas Institute for Arts in Education, Saint Agnes Academy, the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and University of Houston.

Maria is a certified Pilates instructor on both the Mat and Equipment, thorugh the PhysicalMind Institute, supervised by John Gossett. Maria is a member of the Pilates Method Alliance.