Bio
Heléna Melone’s teaching inspires and engages all ages and levels of experience; her evocative performances enthrall. On the Maine Arts Commission roster of Arts Educators, her background in both Flamenco and Middle Eastern dance is deep and broad (see resumé below), including the study of both idioms as “Gypsy” “folk” arts (that is, arts which are strongly rooted in the Roma story and culture): with Gitanos in Granada, Spain and Roma in Istanbul, Turkey.
Heléna holds MA’s in both English Literature from UNH and Dance as a Healing Art from Lesley University. Formerly an instructor of high school and college English for nine years, she turned her attention towards healing modalities, ranging from dance to Inipi (sweat lodge) ceremony, as well as apprenticing with healer and ceremonialist ALisa Starkweather for two years, at whose events she now teaches, performs, and facilitates (Daughters of the Earth, Belly & Womb Conference). Having completed basic facilitator training in ShadowWork, Heléna staffs Women In Power workshops throughout the east coast and in the UK.
Her broad background enables her to comfortably bring her work into a variety of settings, ranging from storytelling/teaching/performance work in elementary and secondary schools throughout New England, to expressive dance therapy with adult survivors of brain trauma and wyld wymn’s workshops! The Middle Eastern Dance and Flamenco teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy since 1999, Heléna 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. A skilled instructor and facilitator, Heléna synthesizes her passion and inspiration as both a dancer/artist and as a teacher/facilitator with 15 years of experience to help others realize and claim their potential through the power of dance.
And with gratitude and respect for all her teachers, Nature is still her
greatest influence, and Water her most inspiring muse!