Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Ana Maria’s talent for photography provided her with her first trip to Europe at the age of 18 when she won 1st Prize in a photographic competition sponsored by Avianca Airlines. This marked the beginning of a life of travel based around an international career as a dancer, choreographer and singer/songwriter and her passion for photography has been a constant factor throughout her many journeys.
Ana Maria studied Classical Contemporary and Modern Jazz dance at the Rotterdam Conservatory and the Theatre School in the Netherlands. She went on to study further at the Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham schools in New York.
Having developed her music skills alongside dance since childhood, her dance career naturally merged with music and this has brought her to work as a dancer, singer and guitar player with musicians like Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music: Tim Finn of Split Enz: Sergio Dias from the legendary Brazilian band Mutantes: Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart: Film Composer, Michael Kamen: Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys and The Eurythmics among others.
Her friendship and association with Dave Stewart led to the invitation to photograph Bob Dylan and the resulting photographs have appeared on a number of album and book covers to form the body of work for this London show at Testbed Gallery.
Ana Maria has previously lived in Europe, USA and Brazil and speaks five languages.
She currently lives in London and writes and records alongside her husband, guitarist and composer, Mark Wood, under the name of Bossa Futura.
Ana Maria Portrait by Hendrik Smildiger
Bootleg video of Ana María performing in Rio de Janeiro