#52:
The Dance of Belonging
with
Mele Estrella & Damara Vita Ganley
Episode Summary
Dance artists Mele Estrella and Damara Vita Ganley join show host Jef Szi and the How Humans Work Podcast for an illuminating conversation that explores the rich terrain of their artistic work.
Throughout this remarkable episode, we learn about Mele and Damara’s intensive creative ethics, efforts to engender trust, dedication to playfulness, and deep curiosity about the hidden stories around them.
As dedicated movement artists, they are a powerful example of how attuning with one’s body, relationships, and the performance spaces acts as a cohesive force. Their craft and their commitment to the process of art is the foundation for their dance, and we are well-instructed by listening to them.
In particular, we hear the fascinating backstory to their recent project, Flock. Flock intertwines animal and human migration stories with ecological awareness, showing the importance of belonging through the metaphor of “flocking.”
The Dance of Belonging also explores their “Vertical Dance” Bandaloop Project. Using rope and harnesses to dance on the sides of massive objects, like granite faces or skyscrapers, this innovative dance form is a uniquely stunning display of how art can inspire wonder in all of us.
Naturally, we discuss the teachings that come with encountering fear as part of the artistic path. We come to find how Mele and Damara use fear as a guide for deeper connection and support, finding confidence in creative belonging.
Many thanks to Mele and Damara for helping us see Social Cohesion in action. Through their creative efforts and commitment to authentic connection, we find that social cohesion is not so much a product of external forces but instead begins with our connection to our own bodies and the group of people we create the story of our lives with.
*****
About Melecio “Mele” Estrella:
Mele Estrella is a director, choreographer, and educator who has been with BANDALOOP since 2002. As Artistic Director, Mele brings 2 decades of practice weaving vertical dance, dance theater, somatic facilitation. and ecological belonging to BANDALOOP’s dance making. Mele’s work bridges the everyday personal/social body with the dream body, proposing expanded possibility and awe in our time of poly-crisis.
Mele also co-directs Fog Beast, a cross-disciplinary group that affirms ecological connectedness in landscape, live arts and education. He is a longtime member of the Joe Goode Performance Group. Passionate about creating space and sustainability for artists, Mele serves on the advisory boards for the Artists Space Trust and for Arts in California State Parks. He was a Cultural Space Ambassador for the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST), a Leadership Fellow for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), and is currently a Lucas Artes Fellow at the Montalvo Center for the Arts.
About Damara Vita Ganley:
Damara Vita Ganley (she/they) is a movement artist and embodiment guide dedicated to alchemical creativity and connection practices.
She meets her work in the world with deep humility, curiosity and a verdant lostness while drawing on extensive national and international creation, performance and teaching experience.
She bows in profound gratitude for her long time creative collaborations with Melecio Estrella, Artistic Director of BANDALOOP which include Flock at The Momentary (2025), Somewhere to Oakland (2025), and serving as Associate Choreographer for Melecio in Vertical Choreography for Tina Landau and Idina Menzel’s new musical Redwood ( Broadway 2025), Downstream (2024) at Sonoma State, Resurgam (2023) at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Melecio and Damara also weave many years together in Fog Beast and Joe Goode Performance Group
Following degrees in Anthropology, Critical Feminist Theory and Performance, Play and Design, Damara has had opportunities to perform with Mel Wong, Ellen Webb, Nancy Karp and Jo Kreiter/Flyaway Productions, Gerald Casel Dance Cid Pearlman, Holcombe Waller, Erin Mei-ling Stuart/emspace dance, Manuelito Biag/Shift Dance Theatre, and Lisa Townsend.
She currently shares movement practices as a lecturer at UCSC in Play, Performance and Design, with people with Parkinson’s, Veterans, Care Providers, at Bay Area High Schools, with SFArtsEd Middle School performers and as a leader of JGPG’s signature movement methodology, Movement for Humans.
She enjoys offering embodiment practices and somatic sessions for individuals as well.
Contact Damara:
