The artistic director of Mobile Ballet is known for demanding the most from her dancers, but Katia Garza’s philosophy starts with a distinctly Mexican lesson about hardship. “Mexicans see their struggles in a positive and funny way, to laugh about life,” said Garza, a former principal dancer with the Orlando Ballet. “It definitely helped me throughout my career. I try to apply my sense of humor to my ballet.”
That outlook has shaped everything the company has staged since she and her husband, ballet master Israel Rodriguez, joined Mobile Ballet in 2017. The productions under her direction have been deliberately light and fun, built to deliver happiness and, in her words, inspire the soul. The approach has also coincided with significant growth: the Mobile studio now counts five studios, and a new, larger Eastern Shore facility has three, giving Baldwin County students a place to train closer to home and easing the commute for their parents.
From Monterrey to the Principal’s Spot
Garza, a native of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, trained at the Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey, graduating in 1995 and joining Ballet de Monterrey the same year. She was promoted to soloist within six months and to principal dancer a year later, under the direction of the famed Fernando Bujones. Her repertoire as a principal character stretched from Don Quixote, Giselle and Swan Lake to The Nutcracker, Coppelia and La Bayadere. She represented Mexico at the Jazz World Congress in 2001 and was a finalist at the 2002 International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi.
In 2000 she joined the Orlando Ballet as a principal dancer and stayed 14 years. Rodriguez, born in Camaguey, Cuba, trained at that city’s famed Vocational Art School and was a principal with Ballet de Monterrey before the couple’s years in Orlando. When they left Florida, they traveled as guest choreographers creating full-length ballets, and that is how Mobile Ballet found them. “They needed a new Nutcracker,” Garza recalled. The company premiered her new production of The Nutcracker in 2017.
Everything Original, Nothing Recycled
Across her years leading the company, Garza has insisted on original productions, whether classical, neoclassical or Broadway-flavored. Her full-length choreography for Mobile Ballet includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Little Mermaid, Giselle, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog, and the Northwest Florida Ballet premiered her Peter Pan in 2018 before Mobile Ballet staged it in 2022.
Collaboration is the other signature. The company has performed in Mobile Opera’s Hansel and Gretel and at the History Museum of Mobile’s gala for its Cuban exhibition. Mobile Symphony Orchestra musicians have played in the show orchestras, and local singer Symone French performed in The Princess and the Frog. More recently Garza launched a project with Dance Without Limits, an adaptive-dance organization. “It enriches the community when we all experience it together,” she said. “We’re enriching younger generations to become better humans, and we’re creating audiences for future generations.”
Training the Next Generation
Garza’s classroom reputation matches her stage one. She has earned the Outstanding Teacher award at the Youth America Grand Prix Semifinals in 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020, received Mobile Arts Council’s 2024 Arts Educator Arty Award, and was voted Best Arts Educator in Lagniappe’s Nappie Awards in 2024 and 2025. Her story has reached a wider audience through “Katia Garza: My Life in Dance,” an inspirational documentary by IRG Productions that premiered in Mexico and the United States.
She meets each dancer where their ambitions are. “Certain children want to pursue a professional career in ballet,” she said. “I know how hard it is, so I try to set realistic goals and provide the right guidance. Some aspire to become singers, Rockettes or Broadway performers. Others are seeking university scholarships. As they grow, their dreams and ambitions change, but if they pursue them with honesty, hard work, loyalty and commitment, it will pay off.”
With the closure of the Mobile Civic Center Theater forcing a change of venue, the company now creates for the Saenger Theater, whose scale and character Garza finds beautiful and a different kind of inspiring. Her long-gestating dream production, Alice in Wonderland, planned in her head for five years, waits for the right stage. In the meantime, Mobile Ballet’s community outreach continues, including free performances such as The Princess and the Frog at Coastal Alabama Community College in Bay Minette, extending ballet to audiences who might never buy a ticket downtown.