Ligia was a professional ballet dancer with Evansville Dance Theatre, BalletMet, and a free-lance artist, performing leading roles in The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, Napoli Variations, and Coppélia, and in contemporary works and historical reconstructions.

She received a B.F.A. in Ballet Performance from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, graduating summa cum laude. She has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Dance History, and an M.F.A. and a teaching certification in Labanotation – a system of recording dance using symbols – from The Ohio State University. In addition to ballet training and university degrees, Ligia has a certification in Yoga teaching through the Kripalu School.

She has taught ballet and pointe, and workshops at private dance studios in Ohio and Central New York to students ages 5-18 and adults. Ligia has choreographed ballet works for students of all ages, including the full-length ballets The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.

Ligia taught at Wittenberg University and SUNY-Oswego, where she developed courses in ballet technique, pointe, modern dance, dance history, anatomy for dancers, choreography, and Labanotation. As a faculty of dance programs, she has choreographed works for university concerts and collaborated in productions of musicals such as My Fair Lady, HMS Pinafore, and the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also choreographed for the Oswego Opera Theatre productions of Dido and Aeneas, Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, Noah’s Flood, and The Golden Cage. She has presented her historical research through papers and performances at professional conferences in the United States, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and France.