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Melina in Singapore:
Show & Seminars April 29-May 4, 2008

 

STUDENTS! Visit Melina's "Tips from the Hip" (TM) Blog for her most-to-date class notes and essays.

SCROLL DOWN for extensive details of Melina's upcoming performances and tour schedule


Melina's VOGUE shot
 

QUICK VIEW

Spring Seminars in Greece at Studio Rhea 4/13 & 4/20
Goddess Motion Singapore Show at Victoria Theatre, April 29th
Summer tour with Circus Flora to St Louis & Nantucket
Kripalu Sacred Pulse Music Festival in the Berkshires
BellyPalooza August 2 & 3


Melina of Daughters of Rhea - (Melinda Pavlata, PhD) - is sought after worldwide as a belly dance artist and master teacher who takes the art of belly dance to new heights of elegance, creativity and entertainment -- she is the only dancer in the world to balance a sword on the tip of a dagger clutched in her jaws in while dancing and descending into a full split.  She has balanced a tray of lit candles on her head while dancing since the age of seven. Her zills are zinging and rousing rhythmic forces.  And she is friendly, fun & a consummate professional!

Photos Below:  MELINA THEN (age 7, belly dancing at the Athens by Night Taverna in Plaka, Athens, Greece) AND NOW (dancing at Karoun)!

Melina as the featured belly dancer on the television show Bridezilla and appeared in the Award-winning documentary So, Much, So Fast. She will be appearing on an upcoming episode of MTV's hit show "MADE".  Melina also owns, produces and stars in her own European-style family circus Cirque Passion.  Cirque Passion puts up its elegant little tent for circus and dance shows in the context of festivals, museum and theatre shows, circuses, nonprofit & corporate galas, birthday celebrations, weddings, elegant holiday parties, anniversaries and corporate events. 

Past Venues/Clients of Melina
and her Daughters of Rhea belly dancers

Four Seasons Hotel
The Wang Center in Boston
Young Presidents Association at the Boston Aquarium
Baltimore Museum of Art Theatre
 Ritz Carlton
Copley Plaza
Egyptian-Greek Syllogo of Athens
Rainbow Nursing Home
 Cirque Passion
Circus Flora
The City Museum of St. Louis
Center of Creative Arts in St Louis
 for Julio Iglesias at Zeus Tavern in Plaka
Taipei Arena
Cirque Rocks! New Zealand
Regent Theatre Satin Rouge Screening
Artist for Humanity's Epicenter
The Roxy Nightclub Theatre Rhode Island

Upcoming:

Victoria Theatre, Singapore
Kripalu Sacred Pulse Music Festival
Kritikos Tavera in Athens, Greece
Center of Creative Arts in St Louis
Cirque Passion in Natick, MA

"Melina dances like a Poem"
-Cleopatra of Athens

"Beautiful and entertaining. outrageously so."
-Four Seasons Hotel

Hire Melina's Cirque Passion circus tent and aerial show for upscale & unique elegant weddings and parties.


Melina's tent

View new clips of Melina's World-Class Belly Dancing in Athens on YouTube!  Watch her ONE OF A KIND sword and dagger act!


NEW: Melina's Daughters of Rhea Blog
 

CONTACT MELINA
to book her and the Boston Daughters of Rhea dancers for an elegant belly dance or circus arts show. 


Watch Melina's incredible sword balance on dagger act now Via Streaming Video!  Melina's January 2007 TV performance and interview on "To The Pointe" with host Cinda Hill.




 melina dancing at karoun restaurant. photo by roger gordy.


LOCAL BOSTON SHOW DATES
&  TOURING SCHEDULE

When she is not performing in far flung international hotspots -- Singapore! Greece! France! New Zealand! Taiwan! --Melina regularly takes the stage at the lovely Karoun Restaurant in Newton, MA.  Karoun's features a live international band on Friday and Saturday nights and beautiful large dance floor where you can spin about with your date or by yourself! She also performs at Layaleena.  Melina is available to entertain and inspire at gala events or private functions.

 

Melina at LAYALEENA: Next date TBA
approximate 10:45 p.m. showtime.
Visit www.layaleena.com for directions, cover charge & pricing information

Saturday April 5th
Melina at Karoun's, 9:30 p.m. showtime.
Call 617.964.3400 for dinner reservations

MELINA'S UPCOMING
WORLDWIDE WORKSHOPS & PERFORMANCES


[PRIVATE LARGE GROUP FUNCTION]
Wellesley College Belly Dancing Society
Wellesley College, Wellesley MA
March 2008
Melina's CLEOPATRA'S FRENZY choreography
Technique, Drills & Choreography
 

[PRIVATE LARGE GROUP FUNCTION]
Newton, MA
First Unitarian Church Event
March 14, 2008
Introduction to the Ancient Art of Belly Dance
 

Melina and Sacha Pavlata at the ROXY Nightclub in Rhode Island
FIRST ANNIVERSARY GALA BASH
aerial cirque/belly danceshows:  sacha's cloud swing, melina's lyra, romantic double trapeze, melina's world-famous sword and dagger act
March 27th and March 29th, 11 p.m. - 2 a.m.

 

MANOUCHE! Melina's Student Recital and Showcase
April 1, 2008
Karoun Restaurant
7 p.m. ($10 - $15 cover)

 

Boston, MA
The StateRoom
April 5th 2008
Private Wedding Function
 

Newton, MA
April 5, 2008
Fool's Folly
Fundraiser Performance for Mason-Rice School
 

Northshore, MA
SHE Network Gala Event with Show & Seminar by Melina
All proceeds to benefit SHE.
April 10, 2008
 

Athens, Greece
Studio Rhea
April 12 - 20, 2008
Seminars & Shows TBA
 

Singapore
Victoria Theatre Performance April 29th, 2008
Seminars May 1 - 4, 2008
(sponsor/producer:  Goddess Motion in Singapore)

Verona, NY
Turning Stone Casino Resort
May 14th, 2008
Melina's Greek Belly Dance show with Piper
Corporate Event

St Louis, MO
Circus Flora Tour
June 5 - 22, 2008
 

St Louis, MO
Center of Creative Arts
June 30-July 11, 2008
Circus Arts Camp
July  5th:  Belly Dance Master Class at COCA (Pending)

Stockbridge, MA
Kripalu: The Sacred Pulse Music Festival
Weeklong Festival July Jul 13-18, 2008 (5 nights, Sun – Fri)
Faculty: Krishna Das, Mickey Hart, Wah!, Donna De Lory, Tracy Vernon, Shivananda Thomas Amelio, Toni Bergins, KDZ: The Drummers at Kripalu, Melina of Daughters of Rhea, John de Kadt and The Nanapowe Drum Group
 

Nantucket Island, MA
Last weekend of July, 2008
Circus Flora Tour

Baltimore, MD
Daughters of Rhea BellyPalooza Festival
Johns Hopkins University Campus and BMA
August 2-3, 2008
Festival, Workshops & Show

 

Weekend after labor day:
Melina's CIRQUE PASSION in BOSTON AREA!
Details TBA

Taipei, Taiwan
Wallenda Family Circus
November 2008 (pending)

 


Melina and her Daughters of Rhea Arabian Nights Ensemble
BOOK MELINAAND HER TROUPE

MELINA'S AERIAL & CIRCUS PERFORMANCES

Melina (Melinda Pavlata) and Sacha of Cirque Passion performed their aerial ballet duet at the COCA gala in St. Louis on Friday November 4th 2005. Mikhail Baryshnikov was among many esteemed guests in the audience.


Melina and Sacha of Cirque Passion. Photo by Algerina Perna.

Spring & Summer 2006:

Melina toured as trapeze artist, dancer & juggler (cirque passion) with circus flora's 20th anniversary production of Homage. 

"The sensuous aerial adagio dance of Melinda Heywood and Circus Flora co-founder Alexandre Sacha Pavlata, for example, will entrance the adults (as will Heywood's belly dance number) while the antics of Nino the Clown (the multi-talented Giovanni Zoppe, a Flora regular for many years now) will keep the kids in hysterics." -- Chuck Lavazzi of KDHX.

 

MELINA'S ABRIDGED PERFORMANCE HISTORY

Cirque Passion
Melina (Melinda Pavlata) is co-creator along with world-renown 5th generation Czech circus artist Alexandre Sacha Pavlata of Cirque Passion, an intimate one-ring cabaret-style circus that features dance, circus arts and aerial acts.  Cirque Passion delighted audiences at the Baltimore Museum of Art with "Reve," a romantic trapeze duet (see photo at right). In addition to regularly touring with Circus Flora, Cirque Passion has performed at the Red Bull Art of the Can Exhibit opening at Boston's Artists for Humanity Epicenter, at the Boston Center for the Arts HUBBUB! gala, throughout Europe including Paris and Athens, Greece, and for the Charleston, S.C. nonprofit organization Darkness to Light.  Cirque Passion recently performed at the St Louis   COCA's gala for Mikhail Baryshnikov and other delighted audience members.  They toured to Auckland, New Zealand with the Flying Wallendas for Dean Lonergan's "McDonald's Cirque Rocks!" stadium extravaganza and will tour to Taiwan and Puerto Rico in late Fall 2006.

Circus Flora

Melina is an aerialist, dancer and theatre choreographer for Circus Flora, a one-ring, European-style circus.  She played the role of Little Egypt for the “Ruvna” Show in St. Louis (1996) & Norfolk, VA (1997), dance as the Allegory Hope for the “Pegasus” show in St. Louis (1998) and Irving, TX (1998), and was the Juggling Dancing Girl who teaches the elephant how to belly dance in “Farewell to Flora” show Phoenix, AZ (2000-1).  Most recently she danced with stallions in the ring as the "Muse of the East" at the Spoleto Arts Festival in South Carolina and in St. Louis, MO. In June 2005 she played the "Silent Daughter" in the production of Tzigan.  She danced in the ring with horses and took to the air with Sacha as they performed their acclaimed aerial ballet on the trapeze (visit www.cirquepassion.com for the pictures).

Tavernas/Cabarets: 

Athens, Greece (Age 7 through present).    Athens by Night Taverna,  Kalokairinos, 1001 Nights, Sahara, Vrahos, Musikes Skies, Axum, Palia Athina, Kritikos, Giovetsakia, Zeus Taverna, 1002 Nights, Axum Restaurant.

Boston, MA  (Wellesley College Days & Present) Karoun’s (1989-present); Layaleena (present) Averof (1989), Middle East Restaurant (1989-90) Shahrazad  Restaurant (’90-‘91).

Philadelphia, PA  (Grad School Years) Middle East Café, Painted Bride Art Center show with ethnic fusion band “Jaffna” .

San Diego, CA (Post-PhD Year  by the Sea 1998-99).  Marrakesh (La Jolla), Greek Village (Carlsbad), Greek Town, Armenian Café, Kebob House, Zorba’s, Greek Palace.

San Francisco Bay Area (From age 2 dancing with costume pinned to diaper to present). Parthenon (Walnut Creek), El Morocco (Pleasant Hill), Zorbas (San Jose).

Recent Festivals & Special Shows (abridged)

Founder & Creative Director of the ALS Therapy Development Foundation’s Belly Dance Fundraising Extravaganza.   Melina & her sister Piper have raised over $300,000 for Lou Gehrig’s Disease Research.

Baltimore BellyPalooza. Co-created by Daughters of Rhea productions, this annual event features seminars with Melina,  Piper, Rhea and guest artist instructors as well as an evening show at the Baltimore Museum of Art.  View a multi-media montage of our 2006 production "Belly Dance Magic," on the Baltimore Sun website.

Rakkasah East 2000, 2001 & 2002 in Somerset, NJ. (www.rakkasah.com)

Three Arrows Cooperative Society, Putnam Valley NY (2001).  Danced in collaboration with Phil Marsh, Melina's father and folkster guitarist extraordinaire.

Rhea's Athenian Haflis at Axum, Greece's premier Ethiopian restaurant and venue for Rhea's middle eastern dance happenings.

Mediterranean Night @ Wellington School in Belmont. April 3, 2003.  Performed to the wonderful live music of Karim Nagi Mohammed & Mal Barsemian for elementary school students, their siblings and parents. 

Brownie's Girl Scouts meeting.  Melina brought finger cymbals, sword dancing and a Greek language lesson to the Brownie Scouts in Belmont on Thursday February 26th, 2004.  Brownie Renee Eurdolian insists it was "the best meeting EVER."

Misc: 
On Thursday September 12th, 2002, Melina participated in a one-night-only production of "From the Horse's Mouth" at the Springold Theater Center at Brandeis University.  From the Horse's Mouth, an evening-length theatre/dance piece conceived and created by Tina Croll and Jamie Cunningham, has produced unprecedented and exhilarating results wherever presented.  First done in 1998 at Joyce Soho in NYC with only modern dancers and choreographers, subsequent productions became more diverse by including dancers from other disciplines and styles such as African, Flamenco, East Indian, Japanese, tango, jazz, ballet, belly dance and Broadway.

Saturday October 12th, 2002.  Melina and her Daughters of Rhea Dance Ensemble performed at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA before the screening of Tunisian movie SATIN ROUGE.

February 7 & 8, 2003.
Melina debuted her new choreography "Walk Like an Egyptian," a witty take a l'orientale on the 80's pop song  in "East Meets West: Arabia American Style," an ensemble show produced by Johara and Snakedance productions.  

August 2004: HIP, HIP, HOORAY!  Melina, Piper and Rhea perform at the Baltimore Museum of Art in "Belly Dance Magic," a gala show produced by Daughters of Rhea, recently reviewed by Elaine in the gilded serpent. Featured Melina's debut as an aerial circus artist in her romantic trapeze duet "Reve" with Sacha Pavlata of Cirque Passion and Circus Flora.  Standing Ovation!  Visit www.cirquepassion.com for more info.

February 2005. Melina and Daughters of Rhea dancers Johanna, Panayiota and Sara danced for St. Jude Medical Research Fundraiser at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts.

.
Pictured Left to Right:  Daughters of Rhea Dancers
Sara, Melina and Soraya Nahzlu.
Photo by Allison Durham.

saturday february 26th
Melina & sacha of cirque passion performed their sensual aerial ballet duet and sacha's cloud swing solo @ red bull art of the can exhibition opening at the Artists for Humanity Epicenter.

..and the list goes on. Check back for updates... I'm always doing something!