Manuel Meza is an internationally working performer, choreographer, and teacher. They received their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the prestigious California Institute of the Arts and obtained their Master of Arts in Choreography and Composition from the Folkwang University of the Arts. They have collaborated with YuanYuan Wang of the Beijing Contemporary Dance Theatre, Okwui Okpokwasili, Douglas Nielsen, Claus Guth, and Sommer Ulrickson at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Opéra Comique. Currently, they are performing in the latest opera production by Lydia Steier, alongside Tabatha McFadyen, at the Wiener Staatsoper, premiering in May 2025.

Their passion for dance education has led them to teach master classes throughout Germany and internationally, including at the California Institute of the Arts, Riverside City College, Marameo Berlin, TanzFaktur, and as a faculty member at the Berlin Dance Institute. Most recently, Manuel Meza was a choreographer-in-residence at Riverside City College, where they created their newest choreographic work, In the Pursuit of Self Love.

In 2023, Manuel began their journey as a producer by organizing the dance festival Against the Grain, which offers a platform for POC, queer, non-binary/trans, and radically thinking dancers and performers who are often fighting for visibility within the dance world. That same year, they produced the dance event Smashing Spheres, where they premiered a new solo work, A Lonely Paradise, which traces a decade-long path through grief and the journey to self-love and acceptance. Against the Grain will have its third iteration in late 2025.