Ellas Bio below
For classes regularly in London go to www.elementdance.co.uk or check in the classes listing.
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AxE
Ella’s dance career began with Latin Dance, training in Salsa, Tango and Samba before she began to perform with Latin Ballroom dancer Pedro Coimbra, and as a soloist with Rebelado- Bristol Samba group under the training of Militsa Stojanovic. Upon completion of a degree in Politics, Ella travelled to Brazil in 2004 to train further in Samba and Orixas performing with Circo Piccolino in Salvador. Upon her return, she began training with M and Em dance Company (Merville Jones- founder Phoenix member) as an apprentice in Contemporary Dance. Ella also took dance teacher training with the National Dance Teacher’s Association (NDTA), and began teaching in the community of Leeds. In 2006, Ella travelled to Brazil to train intensively for three months, and was accepted as Passista (This is an audition only role usually open to dancers born and raised in Rio) in Rio Carnival. Ella began training her breaking seriously in 2007 in Birmngham with bboys attic, before moving to London to train in Contemporary Dance at Laban from 2007-2009, and then in 2009-2010 Ella completed a year of advanced dance training at The London Contemporary Dance Conservatoire in London. Ella continued breaking training with Bgirl Sunsun in London and was granted a scholarship to study Circus skills (Aerial and gymnastics) at the Circus Space. In 2009, Ella was awarded the Lisa Ullman dance training travelling Scholarship She went to New York to train with Bgirl Rockafella in breaking, and Angel Ortiz and Eddie Torres in New York Salsa (Mambo).). Ella completed a course with Ken Swift in Bboying foundations course, and with Benji Reid in the realm of HipHop Theatre in July 2010.
Ella set up a small Latin dance group- Element Dance Company in 2005, which has since grown and taken her and members across the globe as far as India to perform! Ella is now continuing to develop her work with Element Dance exploring the fusion of Breaking, New York Salsa, Rumba, Samba and House. Performance venues include Salsa Kingdom, Olympia, Wembley Stadium, Birmngham NEC, Ty’s video Emotions, Franz Ferdinand’s video and many more.In May 2010, Element Dance celebrated its 5th year with an event sponsored by Havan Club featuring a fusion dance competition and shows. Element Dance was granted a residency to explore work at The Yorkshire Dance Centre in July 2010.
Ella became Rainha (Queen) of the London School of Samba in 2008-2009, and came third in the (International) Samba Queen competition held in Germany. Ella has featured in the Nescafe Salsa advert, appeared in many London shows at various venues and events including the NME awards, Watchdog, Saddlers Wells, and has travelled abroad to teach in Boston- USA, Copenhagen and Aarhuss-Denmark, Outokumpu- Finland, Belgrade- Serbia, Malaga-Spain. In 2009, Ella toured with 14 Amp dance Company, playing Juliet in a HipHop Romeo and Juliet in Turkey.
Ella is exploring and creating independant work fusing elements of breaking and Contemporary dance. Ella has been collaborating and working with artists including Sarah Sayeed and Sister Elements, Natalie James, Iris De Brito, dance partner to Moe Flex (Cuban Salsa) Metamovements, Boston, and Full Circle New York- (with whom she created a piece for the New Jersey Salsa Congress