Melanie A. King is a professional modern dance artist whose performances and choreography have taken her to Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and now, Los Angeles. With her eclectic technical background, she has had the opportunity to dance for Courage Group-SF, Company Chaddick, Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, Joel Hall Dancers, and the Creative Studies Tap Ensemble. Melanie received her Master's Degree in Performance and Choreography from the University of California-Irvine in June 2009, working as Rehearsal Assistant to Donald McKayle and his Etude Ensemble, performing William Forsythe’s Artifact under the direction of Jodi Gates, and dancing in Yvonne Rainer's Pedagogical Vaudeville. In 2009 she traveled to Istanbul, Turkey and participated in Danse Kamera Istanbul as a performer and Assistant Choreographer to Loretta Livingston for a project titled, Surface. Ms. King’s choreography has been presented at the American College Dance Festival, Laguna Beach Art Walk in conjunction with the Laguna Beach Dance Festival, and the INDO/US Conference in Irvine, California. Melanie also holds a Pilates certification from A Body of Work in San Francisco and continues to explore movement through somatic practices by linking body and mind awareness to dance’s expressiveness. Currently, she is a Lecturer in the Dance Department at Loyola Marymount University’s Pilates Wellness Lab and is on the dance faculty at Long Beach City College and MiraCosta College, while continuing her Pilates practice as a trainer at Angel City Body Kinetics in Marina Del Rey. Her current choreographic endeavors involve exploring the connections between visual art and dance, both intellectually and physically, while also performing with String Theory and presenting her own work with her company, Make Dance Projects throughout Los Angeles.
What Melanie will be bringing to the Festival
Melanie will be presenting a ten minute duet called “femina libretto" at the Electric Lodge. Joining her in performance will be Lavinia Findikoglu. The work is based on “eggs”…their simplicity, beauty, form and more deeply, their metaphorical meaning to the female gender.