Ella Havelka

2021 Cohort

Pronouns: she/her

Ella is elevating the importance of dance for First Nations communities and exploring how to make Australia’s dance industry more inclusive, diverse and accesible.

Ella Havelka is a Freelance Creative, Founding Director of The ELLA Foundation, Creative Director at Eco Dancers, Board Director at Ausdance National and a Traditional Weaver at Wagga Wagga’s Hands on Weavers. In these various roles she works with dance institutions, the Wiradjuri community and public schools, to weave together multiple worlds while creating new pathways for First Nations dance and storytelling in response to Country. At The ELLA Foundation she provides dance scholarships and mentorships to First Nations youth across Australia, and at Hands on Weavers

A Wiradjuri woman based in Sydney (Kooringai Country), New South Wales on the lands of the Cameraygal people, Ella is passionate about creating new pathways for First Nations storytelling through both dance and weaving. Ella is a dancer of two worlds having danced for both Bangarra Dance Theatre and The Australian Ballet becoming the first Indigenous dancer to do so. She was the subject of the documentary film ELLA, which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2016.

Ella won a Deadly Award in 2013 for her contributions to dance and a professional development scholarship which allowed her to travel internationally to spend time with esteemed contemporary dance companies, Batsheva Dance Theatre and Hofesh Schector Company. In 2019 Ella Choreographed ‘Wilaygu Ngainybula // Possums Two Minds’ for The Australian Ballet's Education and Outreach Team and is currently working on her second First Nations ballet commission ‘The story of Pomi and Gobba’. Ella currently resides in Sydney working as a freelance creative, mentor, performer and collaborator.