Bio
Heléna Melone is an international performer and teacher, specializing in Arabic, American, and fusion styles of belly dance, as well as Roman (“Gypsy”) style and flamenco, having studied widely in the U.S. and in Turkey, Egypt, & Spain. She has fused her dance idioms into an original signature style, Flamenco-Belly fusion, which she has taught throughout the U.S. and in the U.K.
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 to international stages! The Middle Eastern Dance and Flamenco teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy since 1999, she was a selected to be a featured performer at the Theatrical Belly Dance Conference 2011, and invited to participate in the international Top Belly Dancer Competition & Reality Show in 2010. Heléna has performed and taught internationally, in the UK and in Egypt, as well as throughout the eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida, as well as California and 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 Mentor,
her greatest influence,
and Water her most inspiring muse!