An established professional artist with over 15 years of experience in dance and movement, Ella trained at Laban/LSCD and also studied politics at Leeds university. Ella is of mixed heritage and was born in Canterbury, but grew up in Bristol. She has studied dance in Brazil (first visting in 2004), Cuba (first visiting in 2011), NYC (first visiting in 2009 with a Lisa Ullman scholarship) and the UK.
Performance highlights include Russell Maliphant Company, Lea Anderson (The Chomondeleys), Olympics Opening Ceremony. Ella was a Bench fellow and resident at Casa Latin American Festival (2015), Associate Artist at Dance City (2017), Associate Artist Trinity Centre Bristol (2018), Slate World Artist (2020), Pervasive Media Studio Resident (2020). Ella curated She Created Her Life Festival, and produced 5 Roots Of Rumba events: an international dance festival. A WCMT grant took her to Brazil and Cuba (2017) and AIDF awards (2018) took her to Capetown collaborating with South African poet Toni Stuart.
‘Maya Gandaia’ translates as ‘Illusion to Joy’ and is an Embodied Alchemy concept Ella created for empowering creatives to release their fears, re-connect to their passion and power, and create a life of joy. Ella is also championing a wellness project called Business Yoga which is all about supporting companies to put wellbeing at the heart of their ethos.
With Ella Mesma Company, ‘Ladylike’ was runner up as ‘Best Dance Production of The Year’ LUKAS Awards (2018). Highlights include recent work Foreign Bodies: An Underwater Love Story, funded by Arts Council of England and Metal (Liverpool). The company has been commissioned by Sadler’s Wells (Wildcard 2017), RBKC (2015) Metal (2018), Breakin Convention (2011, 2012), Women’s International Leadership Conference, NYC (2017), National Circus Centre (2018), ICA Festival, Capetown (2018), IETM (2019).
Ella has studied yoga since 2004, and trained to teach Vinyasa yoga with Abby Hoffman (Embodied Dancer Teacher Training) in 2011 (with a Gil Clarke Scholarship), then Kundalini at the Karam Kriya School in 2018 and in Yoga Trapeze® at the Yoga Teachers College® in 2020. Ella has also practised Ashtanga since 2015, and has trained in TRE, The Wheel Of Consent, Holistic Pelvic Care (under Tami Kent) and the coaching of William Whitecloud.
Ella’s first dance was Salsa: she started to dance it aged 14 in Bristol. Ella was also the founder of EAC (Element Arts Company) in Leeds (now handed over to the collective and managed by Hannah Bertram). Ella took this company to gigs across the world (Including two visits to India), they won a salsa competition in 2008, and featured on tv shows and in music videos including for the talented ‘Ty’. Ella was Rainha da Bateria for London School of Samba in 2007, and a passista in Rio in 2006. Ella took up breaking (breakdance) in Birmingham where she also worked for Birmingham Royal Ballet, Dance@Highbury and Fox Hollies. Breaking was a refreshing alternative to the Latin world, and her most recent creation in lockdown ‘I am all womxn‘ has received over 7,000 views on facebook.
