Milerka “Míle” (ME-leh) Rodriguez is a movement artist and ART-repreneur from New York. Taking on the philosophy that movement is essential to life, dance has always been more than a passion for Míle, and has been an important tool for finding balance living as a Dominican-American woman in a complex world. Using dance, music, and writing mediums, she strives to explore the wholeness of humanity through the study of culture, the self, change, and our relationship with other living beings. Although she could not access dance classes as a child, she discovered a natural movement listening to Latinx, Afro-Caribbean, and Black-American music in her household. She began by teaching herself moves using music videos and later Youtube, creating her own, unique, choreographed pieces with friends. Her high school and college experiences led her to refine her social and administrative skills as a chapter founding member of Chi Zeta Sigma Sorority, Inc., organizing events and leading chapter meetings. Once she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Business, she decided to take a leap, and pursue dance as a career training in NYC studios like BDC, Peridance, & Steps Broadway, and studying street and club styles with master teachers like Soraya Lundy, Sekou Heru, Princess Lockaroo, and Benny Ninja. In 2010, she joined New Beginnings Dance Company in New Rochelle, led by Kyra Johnson, where she studied ballet, modern, Traditional West African, and Afro-Caribbean dance, eventually training with master teachers like Mouminatou Camara, and Vado. Later, she joined Hip-Hop Theory the Company and Heartbreak Crew, where she continued training in foundational Hip-Hop and storytelling for the stage.

Mile is now a member and Co-Artistic Director of Les Ballet Afrik dance company led by Icon Omari Wiles, fusing underground styles like Vogue, Hip-hop, and House with African dance vocabulary, and educating the masses about Black, Latinx, & Queer experiences. As a dancer, she has performed in places like The Joyce Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center, The Guggenheim Museum, Puerto Rico, & Riu Jamaica, and has worked closely with choreographers like Gigi Torres, Arturo Lyons, Jamal Josef, Excel Garner, Marie Basse-Wiles, Tavia & Tamara, and Derek Mitchell. As an educator, Milerka teaches dance to all ages in NY & NJ through schools and organizations such as Ballet Hispanico, ABT, Steffi Nossen, and Latin Groove Dance Academy. She also works and travels with non-profit organizations like Pizarts and Dancers Unlimited, where she has the opportunity to teach, train, & conduct research internationally, using her findings to assist in fundraising, development, and touring.

Milerka is on an ongoing spiritual, self-healing, and decolonization journey that informs her work and views on life, aiming to produce work that moves the spirit, transmutes energy, inspires change, spreads messages of love, enlightens minds, embodies the self, tells important stories, and encourages everyone to give their dreams a try.