Exploring Life & Business with Michela Melone of Alma Moto Dance

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michela Melone.

Hi Michela, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m an Italian-Brazilian artist, meaning I was born in Italy but grew up going back and forth between the two countries. In Italy, I grew up in L’Aquila, and in Brazil, I spent a lot of time with family in Aracaju, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador.
I started dancing around six years old, but honestly, my dance education started even earlier than that through my mom at home. She taught me Brazilian dances just for fun. Then I went to dance school and did the whole thing: ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, hip-hop. But Brazilian dances were always part of me, not something I had to learn separately.
I ended up in LA because of my career. I’m a professional dancer and choreographer, and I’m really lucky to be based here. But I also get to travel around the world teaching, performing, and working on projects that I either direct or collaborate on. It’s a pretty full life.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I think life has a funny way of giving us personalized struggles, and mine were very much my own. It required so much work and so much sacrifice that most people will never see or acknowledge. But the good thing is that it paid off, and it keeps paying off, because I get to work with what I love and what I’ve always been passionate about. Getting to create is a beautiful privilege, but it also holds real responsibility. I don’t take that lightly.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Alma Moto Dance?
Almamoto is my dance company, and the name comes from two Portuguese words: alma, which means soul, and moto, which relates to movement. It’s the soul in motion, which feels like the most honest way to describe what I do and who I am.

I’ve always felt that my soul is traveling. It’s always moving. I think that’s the nature of being a multicultural person. My heart is in different places at the same time: Italy, Brazil, the United States. And that’s exactly what Almamoto does. It connects those places through dance, through people, through stories that don’t fit neatly into one culture or one tradition.
As the artistic director and choreographer, I create work that lives at the intersection of everything I am. I collaborate with dancers from different countries and backgrounds, and the work reflects that. It’s not about one style or one aesthetic. It’s about depth, connection, and memory. Dance that remembers where it comes from.

The company’s first major project is a piece called EGO, and it is one of the things I am most proud of. EGO explores the different facets of the self. The premise is simple but the work goes deep: humans are so much more intricate than the boxes we put them in. There is depth and color to who we are. Not everything is as simple as black or white, happy or sad. EGO is a spectrum, a constant exploration and study of the self, digging deeper into what it is that we are and what we represent. The work is not genre specific. There is no one style of dance in it, because the self doesn’t fit into one category either.

We developed EGO in two formats simultaneously: a 20 minute show version and a dance film, which I am currently in the process of completing. We worked in two countries. In Aracaju, Brazil, we premiered the 20 minute version as a preview in front of an intimate invited audience. The response was incredibly warm. Everyone present was excited about the work and wanted to see more. In Italy, we focused on capturing visuals alongside the creative work, with videographer and photographer Mattia Di Niro documenting the entire process. Time was a real constraint in both locations, but both casts showed up fully and delivered beyond what I could have hoped for.
The Brazil cast included Lucas Santos, Ybine Dias, Pedro Neto, Marlisson Jesus, and Láisa Aislin. The Italy cast featured Alessio Colella and Camilla Paris. Every single one of them brought commitment, generosity, and trust to the process, and the work carries all of that.

The next step is bringing EGO to Los Angeles with a US cast, and eventually presenting the full vision across all three countries. That is the goal: Italy, Brazil, and the United States connected through one piece of work, one conversation about who we are and who we are becoming.
Almamoto is still growing. But I believe in it deeply, and I think the world is ready for this kind of work.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I’ve learned along my journey is to trust myself and commit to my work, my art, and my creativity. I think each of us has a very distinct experience on this earth, and sometimes we believe we’re not capable of bringing our vision to life. But I learned that trusting myself to bring my vision alive matters, because the way I do it is going to look different from somebody else’s way. Even if we’re talking about the same thing, my approach is going to be entirely different. And that’s actually the beauty of it. That difference opens doors for new perspectives, new reflections, new ways of seeing things. So I’d say: trust yourself, because you can do more than you think you can.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://michelamelone.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almamotodance
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michela.a.melone
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/michelamelone.dance/

Image Credits
Mattia Di Niro