 In 1946, she began her studies at the Ballet Chair of the .This had been founded a few months earlier by Argentine dancers Hery and Luz Thomson and Irish dancers David and Eva Gray, members of the Ballet Russe of Wassily de Basil who had settled in Venezuela after fleeing post-war Europe.In 1953, Sanoja entered the Grishka Holguín Dance Theater, where Venezuela's contemporary dance movement began.