Heléna Melone, of Datura Dance in Montville, ME and of Firedance Studios in Kittery, ME, holds an MA in English Literature from UNH and one in Dance as a Healing Art from Lesley University. She has been dancing flamenco since 1994, having studied with such artists as Omayra Amaya, Ramon de los Reyes, Ciro, Juaquin and Eva Encinias-Sandoval, Imaculada Ortega, Mercedes Amaya, Pablo Rodarte and Veronica Soliz. Included in her study must be the experience of flamenco as a living improvisational art of the people as she experienced it while traveling in Andalusia and dancing at all night at "juergas" with gitanos in their caves in Sacra Monte, Granada. In 1997 she began her studies in belly dance with Travis Jarrell, expanding and deepening her experience with Myra Morris, Lorraine Lafata, Josie Conte, as well as Rachel Brice, Jill Paker, and Mira Betz, Kami Liddle, Suhaila Salimpour, Dalia Carella, & Leila Haddad. Having trained in both forms, and being an improvisational dancer by nature, it was only natural to merge with the spontaneity inherent in both idioms, thus pioneering flamenco-belly fusion. She has performed and taught throughout the eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida, as well as New Mexico, where she was interviewed by Oprah magazine for her knowledge of flamenco.

Recently accepted as an Arts Educator by the Maine Arts Commission, Heléna is the Flamenco and Middle Eastern Dance teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy and guest teacher at many elementary and secondary schools throughout New England, Heléna is a skilled instructor and facilitator, having spent almost a decade as an English teacher -- primarily at Phillips Exeter Academy, as well as two years at Native American Preparatory School in New Mexico, and several colleges throughout Southern New Hampshire. Additionally, she has completed a two-year apprenticeship with healer and ceremonialist, Alisa Starkweather and the Basic Facilitator Training course in ShadowWork?. Her skills and interests have brought her into settings to work with teens with developmental disabilities, adults who have suffered brain trauma to women who have suffered emotional &/or physical trauma. Heléna's work synthesizes her passion and inspiration as both a dancer/artist and as a teacher/facilitator/healer with 13 years of experience to help others realize and claim their potential through the power of ritual and dance.

An artist with a passion and reverence for Nature as her greatest teacher, one observer of her dancing was heard to comment to his friend: "Looks like Sebago (Lake) on a windy morning." Yes, exactly. Water has been her most patient and reliable teacher of grace and fluidity. This sensibility for Nature, beauty and tactility, and for the craftsmanship and quality of things old, is reflected in all of Heléna's art: jewelry, textiles, teaching and dance.