ABOUT THE COMPANY
DANCE MONKS was founded in 1999 by Rodrigo Esteva Ramirez and Mirah Kellc Moriarty while living in the mountains of Rodrigo's homeland of Mexico, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the Xučyun (Huchiun) Lisjan Ohlone lands. They have dedicated their lives to interdisciplinary, experimental work that delves into the intimate and ancient relationship between body and place. They view dance as a potent medium to rekindle our relationship with the mythic and mend the stories that are held in our bodies and the land. Rodrigo and Mirah are committed to making art as a way of life, a daily discipline in deep listening and creative action in response to the environmental and social needs of our times. They often collaborate with artists and change-makers whose works move through the seen and unseen worlds or states of wonder. Their works ask essential questions about cultural displacement and amnesia while embracing the arts' ability to restore soul memory. In times of forced or voluntary migration, what happens to the old stories and traditions that bond people with the land? How can we, as artists, create fertile ground for this wisdom to continue to grow for future generations?
Rodrigo and Mirah have taught and performed internationally over the last 20+ years as a duet and extensively with world-renowned companies including as members of the physically integrated AXIS Dance Company (2007-08, Oakland), Pearson Widrig Dance Theater (1994-2001, NYC), Apostalia Papadamaki (1993-96, Greece) and Gerado Delgado (1992, Mexico City) in major festivals, universities and venues throughout the United States and Mexico as well as in Canada, Peru, and Europe, including at The Joyce Theater (NY), The Kennedy Center (DC), The Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival (NY), Bates Dance Festival (ME), Middlebury College (VT), CounterPULSE (San Francisco), PS122 (NYC), Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), Central Park Summer Stage (NY), Symphony Space (NY), Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (VT), San Francisco International Arts Festival (SF), Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (Arizona), Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (FL), European Dance Development Center (Amsterdam), Bates Dance Festival (ME), Bard College (NY), University of Veracruz in Xalapa (Mexico), ODC (San Francisco), Iberoamericana University (Mexico City), FAEL (Festival de Artes Escenicas) of Lima, among many others. They have also taught children (K-12) extensively in public and private schools and programs in both Mexico and the United States, including establishing Nature and Arts, an award-winning environmental education through the arts program for elementary-aged students.
View their complete curriculum here or download their CVs below.
DANCE MONKS' original works have received the following awards or been made possible thanks to the financial support and/or commissions of Berkeley Civic Arts Grant (2021 & 2018-19, 2022), San Francisco Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers (FLACC) (2020), BulbFest (2019), D.I.R.T Festival (2017), Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (2016), Kenneth Rainin Foundation (2016), Zellerbach Family Foundation (2007 & 2016), FAEL (Festival Internacional de Artes Escenicas (Peru) (2012), East Bay Foundation for the Arts (2008-09), NOH Space (2008), The Open Circle Foundation (2007, 2009, 2010, 2013), sponsors and generous individuals.
RODRIGO ESTEVA RAMIREZ (Nuu Savi/Mexico), Co-Founding Director was born and raised in Mexico City, overlooking the volcanos of Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl of the Náhuatl peoples. Rodrigo is mestizo of indigenous Ñuu Savi (Mixteco), the people of the rain of Oaxaca, and European ancestry. As an experimental dance artist, he is dedicated to unblocking energy pathways through movement toward transformational and heightened states of being. Rodrigo Esteva holds an MFA in Dance (2023) from the University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA) in conjunction with Centre Chorégraphique National (Montpellier, France). He began his training in classical Ballet with Dagmar Kortum and at UNAM Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (National University of Mexico). He performed with the renowned late Gerardo Delgado, founder of En Dos Partes (Mexico City), including as a finalist in INBA/UAM at Palacio de Bellas Artes. Rodrigo studied formally at the Trisha Brown School (NYC), The Merce Cunningham School (NYC), and Nikolais and Lois Dance Lab (NYC) with support from FONCA Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (National Endowment for the Arts in Mexico). He is a Certified Shiatsu Therapist and graduate of the advanced studies program at the Acupressure Institute of Berkeley with twenty years of experience in this form of traditional Eastern Medicine. He studied directly with renowned author and founder of the program, Michael Gach, as well as with Kaleo Ching, Sylvia Nachlinger, and Alice Hiatt. Rodrigo is a certified Acu-Yoga teacher, a practice that incorporates Yoga, Meditation, and Self-Acupressure. He has been the primary Shiatsu therapist at Levi Strauss's world headquarters (San Francisco) since 2014 and has offered hands-on healing at the Academy of Science, UCSF Hospital, and SF Children's Hospital, among many others. Rodrigo is also an avid gardener and long-distance runner, with practices grounded in the sacred knowledge of his indigenous ancestors.
MIRAH KELLC MORIARTY (Irish/Slavic), Co-Founding Director was raised in the green mountains of Vermont, lands of the Abénaki. Her mother is a fabric artist from a family of weavers of Slavic traveler heritage, and her father is a photographer who comes from stone workers of Éire (Ireland). As an interdisciplinary experimental dance artist, Mirah is devoted to listening to that which wishes to be spoken, the (at times hidden) stories and wisdom that are held deep in our bodies and in the land, or what the Irish call Tuiscint na Talún. Mirah holds a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance (2014) from Hollins University in conjunction with William Forsythe and HfMDK/MA Code in Frankfurt, Germany. She also studied visual art/ installation, costume design/construction, and dance formally as an undergraduate at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO/EDDC) Hogeschool voor de Kunsten of Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oberlin College (OH) and received her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from Goddard College (VT) with a focus in Interdisciplinary Arts in Education. Her current research includes practices of animism and indigenous ways of knowing of Eurasia. Mirah holds a National certification in Yoga and has continued in-depth studies and training in the traditional dances of Cuban and Haitian Folklore over the last thirty years, including with her mentor Dr. Yanique Hume, a published scholar of the Lukumi Babalu Aye tradition. Mirah also trained as an elite-level gymnast, qualifying for the National Junior Olympic team (1990). She was the youngest member of the avant-garde multi-generational company of women, Cradle to Grave Arts/Working Ground, directed by Hannah Dennison. As a company, they created site-specific performances and studied with renowned postmodernists, including Simone Forti, Liz Lerman, Body-Mind Centering of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Somatics, and experiential anatomy based on Irene Dowd's Taking Root to Fly. Mirah also performed with Troupe Caravane, an adopted family member of the interdisciplinary art company based in Canada focused on the celebration of traditional Romani (traveler) culture.
SEBASTIAN KELLC ESTEVA (Latinx), Communications and PR Strategist was born in Mexico City and raised in the Bay Area and Mexico. Sebastian has performed in and assisted with DANCE MONKS' productions since 2003. As a current student at Stanford University with a focus on Communications and Biomechanical Engineering, he now brings a dynamic lens to his role as Communications Strategist. From starting a business when he was six years old to fund his own airplane ticket to visit his grandparents in Mexico, to a lifelong practice in martial arts, he brings a sense of discipline and commitment to everything he does. In addition to working with DM, he is currently a Marketing and Communications intern with Open to Debate, a consultant with SENSA Consulting at Stanford's entrepreneurship club, and a course coordinator for Mind Over Money, empowering underserved communities to flourish through accessible and relevant financial education. Sebastian also served as an intern on the Latinx/e engagement team for EveryTown for Gun Safety working with the country's leading gun violence prevention organization.