Marielys Lely Burgos Meléndez

AfroBorikua artistic researcher, somatic educator, embodied writer, dance audio describer, and communicator. Since 2014, she investigates experiences, poetics, and narratives of mobility-migration-dislocation. As 2021-2023 Artist-in-Residence at Movement Research, Marielys is excavating the presence of Latinx in the ´experimental dance scene´ in NYC, the body as a living archive, contemplative movement, pleasure, and her own ancestral indigenous wisdom. Starting in Fall 2023, Marielys will continue her dance research as a Ph.D. candidate in Critical Dance Studies at the University of California- Riverside.

As an independent and self-funded artist, Marielys has taught and shared work in academic and non-academic institutions in México, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Scotland, Dominican Republic, Canada, her native Boriké, and various cities in Turtle Island. Errática is her first self-published artist book (2019) in collaboration with Taller Asiray.

While in Lenapehoking, she has worked/ performed with Pramila Vasudevan, Antonio Ramos, iele paloumpis, Jill Sigman/ThinkDance, zavé martohardjono -as part of Territory: The Island Remembers, nominated for a 2022 Bessies Award-, Christopher Unpezverde Núñez, and Yanira Castro/ a canary torsi. ´deadbird´ film by devynn emory, ´a fuzzy yellow spot´, by Christopher Unpezverde Núñez, and Sing by Ogemdi Ude -performed at Abrons-, are among the productions that have included Marielys´ poetic audio descriptions. As a Dance Administrator/ Communicator she has supported performing arts organizations like Artichoke Dance Company and Buglisi Dance Theatre/ The Table of Silence Project 9/11, Yanira Castro/ a canary torsi, and currently works as Media and Communications Manager at Movement Research. www.marielysbm.com

[Image Descriptio: Marielys, an Afroindigenous womxn looking at a distance with contentment, and delight. The right hand softly holding the back of her neck, elbow up, arm heavily tattoed. The sun reflects on her shimmery gold dress. Black hair swirls in the wind. A cloudy sky as a backdrop.]