Melecio Estrella

📸 Photo by Brooke Anderson

Melecio Estrella is the Artistic Director at BANDALOOP and Co-Artistic Director at Fog Beast located in Oakland, California. Committed to advancing equity, access, environmental and social justice, Melecio believes dance and art-making play a vital role in the health of individuals, communities and societies.

Melecio has been dancing with BANDALOOP since 2003. In 2011 he became the company’s Education Director and in 2015, the Associate Artistic Director. His BANDALOOP artistic milestones include making dances on the cliffs of Tienmen Mountain in the Hunan province of China; Art and About in Sydney, Australia; The Africa Cup in Libreville, Gabon; The Barents Spektacle in Kirkenes, Norway; and the JFK Centennial at The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC.

In addition to his work with BANDALOOP, he co-directs the dance theater company Fog Beast and is a longtime member of the Joe Goode Performance Group. His choreographies have been commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Francisco Opera Center, Dancers’ Group, Headlands Center for the Arts and numerous universities around the US. He is a 2018-2019 recipient of the Gerbode Special Award in the Arts, and a 2017/18 Leadership Fellow with the Association for Performing Arts Professionals (APAP).

Music for this episode is composed by Simon Sharp and podcast editing is by Bill Fires.