She Moved to Mobile for ‘The Nutcracker’ and Never Left. Now She’s the City’s Best Arts Educator.

Katia Garza moved to Mobile after getting the opportunity to help with Mobile Ballet’s 2017 production of “The Nutcracker,” a one-project arrangement that turned into a permanent relocation and, ultimately, a Reader’s Choice Award.

Before coming to Mobile, Garza spent more than a decade based in Orlando with her husband, Israel Rodriguez — a filmmaker separately recognized this year as the Reader’s Choice Awards’ Best Local Filmmaker — working there as a ballet dancer and instructor. Garza was named Best Arts Educator in the 2026 Reader’s Choice Awards, recognition for her work training the next generation of Mobile-area dancers since putting down roots in the Port City.

About Mobile Ballet

Mobile Ballet is a nonprofit classical ballet school and company founded in 1987. Its annual production of “The Nutcracker,” Tchaikovsky’s ballet first staged in St. Petersburg in 1892, is performed each December at the Saenger Theatre in downtown Mobile.