Melina of Daughters of Rhea (Melinda
Heywood Pavlata, Ph.D.)
is a modern-day bohemian Renaissance woman: second-generation belly
dance artist and aerialist, choreographer, teacher, writer, mother, as well
as -- in her former Ivory Tower life -- a scholar of Medieval French literature. Born to a
folk-rock guitarist father (Phil Marsh -- he played with Energy Crisis, Country
Joe and the Fish & was Pickle Family Circus Band Leader among others) and a gypsy-artist belly dancer mother
(Trailblazing Icon Rhea of Greece) during the
late 1960s Berkeley, California cultural revolution, Melina
exited her mother's womb into a vibrant life of dance, folk music & performance
arts of all ilk. She is a Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Wellesley
College; she was a Ben Franklin Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania
where she received her doctorate in late medieval French literature, and she
is co-founder of the belly dance company
Daughters of Rhea, the European
family circus
company
Cirque Passion, and the
ALS Therapy Development Institute.
Melina and her sister Piper dancing "Pho Pharonic" at the
Baltimore Museum of Art Theatre.
Melina's vibrant belly dance style, formed as a child at the hip of her
mother on taverna stages in the Ancient City of Athens, Greece, is
proto-Tribal (descending through her mother Rhea from the Jamila Salimpour
school of dance) Greco-Turkish, bohemian "manouche" gypsy fusion. Melina's
moves have also been praised and labeled by eminent dance historian and practitioner
Artemis Mourat as "Vintage Oriental". A world-class
entertainer, Melina's dance is
artful, elegant, creative,
captivating, engaging, dramatic and playful.
Melina at Karoun
Watch Melina's Incredible Sword Balanced on Dagger Act Via Streaming Video
Melina's January 2007 TV performance and interview on "To The Pointe" with
host Cinda Hill.
Melina and daughter Zoe Isadora
back stage at Circus Flora
Vew new clips of Melina 's World-Class
Belly Dancing in
Athens on YouTube! Watch her
ONE OF A KIND sword and
dagger act!
Photo by Patty Aiello
Melina at BellyPalooza's "Belly Dance Magic" 2007 Show
at the Baltimore Museum of Art. More
images at www.bellypalooza.com.
Check out Melina's
YouTube Cirque Passion
performance at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
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More on Melina's eclectic life and itinerant, artistic
childhood....
Boston-based
Melina of Daughters of Rhea (AKA Melinda Pavlata)
tours the world as a circus aerialist and belly dance artist. She
heads up the European-style one-ring family circus
Cirque Passion with her
husband Sacha Pavlata. Their beautiful circus tent imported from France
can seat up to 300 people for galas, festivals, weddings, Bar Mitzvahs
and more. In addition to dancing, Melina
performs a variety of aerial acts including an elegant aerial hoop dance fusion
act and a romantic trapeze duet with circus star husband
Alexandre Sacha Pavlata.
Contact us to book our circus
or aerial acts.
Melina with Violin Chris in Circus Flora.
Photo by Scott Raffe.
Melina first
belly danced on stage at the age of 2 with
a costume pinned to her diapers. When she was 6, Melinda’s maverick mother,
oriental dance trailblazer
Rhea,
left the U.S. to lead a permanent life of dance in Athens, Greece.
Throughout her childhood Melina criss-crossed the Atlantic traveling between
amicably divorced parents. She danced professionally alongside her mother
and sister Piper in the ancient city of Athens,
Greece, then turned cartwheels in the circus ring on America’s West Coast
where her father
Phil
Marsh
was bandleader and songwriter for the Pickle Family Circus.
Melina
is the only belly dancer in the world to balance a sword on a dagger
clutched in her jaws!
Melina also
specializes in balancing a large bronze tray of lit candles on her head
while belly dancing, performing deep backbends and articulate floorwork all
the while.
Click here to read student and audience
comments about Melina's performances and teaching.
Melina has
performed with a tray of burning candles on her head since she was 7 years
old! The
photo below of Melina was taken in Greece at the Athens by Night taverna
in 1978. Melina would dance with her mother Rhea at
this taverna every night to live music, then go to school in the morning and
get straight As.
Such is the life of a hybrid gypsy showbiz intello kid.
On the academic
front, Melinda is a magna cum laude graduate of
Wellesley College.
She holds a D.E.S. from the
University of
Geneva
and, as a Ben Franklin Fellow, earned a Ph.D. in Late Medieval French
Literature from the
University of Pennsylvania
in 1997. What to say? When she realized that her childhood arts of belly
dancing and circus were more personally and spiritually rewarding than the Ivory Tower, she
dedicated herself full-time to the free-lance circus and event producing, performing, teaching and
writing life.
Read Melina's
Mission Statement and
Oriental Dance Teaching Philosophy. See her
perform
in Boston. Melina travels internationally
to teach belly dance seminars and perform. Check out her
seminar platter for your next guest-instructor workshop or dance
festival.
For a more detailed meditation on her life in
academia, circus arts and belly dance, read an
interview with Melina first published in Jareeda magazine. Check
out her essays by clicking on the "writing" button on the left side
panel.
Melina is part of the Circus Flora
company and co-founder along with 5th Generation Circus Performer Alexandre Sacha Pavlata of
Cirque Passion. She co-founded the
ALS Therapy Development
Foundation. Through her belly dance fundraiser galas on behalf
of the foundation, Melina has raised over $100,000 to help eradicate Lou Gehrig's disease.
Please consider making a donation to
ALS-TDF. Her work with the foundation is featured in a
documentary So Much, So Fast,
which opened in theatres across the U.S. in Fall '06.
