RODRIGO ESTEVA (Mexico) and MIRAH KELLC MORIARTY (Slavic/US) founded DANCE MONKS in 1999 while living in the mountains of Xalapa, Mexico, and Ook'ot International Dance Festival in 2020. 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 often collaborate with artists and change-makers whose works hover on the threshold of the imaginal world, moving through the seen and unseen.  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 refuge or 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.