Jodi Melnick

I have taught at Barnard College since 2008. Engagement with my students has been a rich part of my dancing and dance making history. My most recent work was presented at Carvahlo Park Gallery, Hudson Hall, The Al Held Foundation, Bard College, the University of Chicago, and at the Belltable in Limerick, Ireland. Additional work premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Little Island, The Joyce Theater, City Center, the Kitchen, New York Live Arts, The Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Spoleto Festival, Jacobs Pillow, The Dublin Dance Festival, and throughout Estonia, Russia, and Japan.

I’ve danced in the Twyla Tharp Dance Company (1990-94, 09’), with Mikhail Baryshnikov (2005-08), created a trio with Donna Uchizono, and continued creative experiences with Sara Rudner, David Neumann, Liz Roche, Maya Lee-Parrtiz, Beth Gill, Yoshiko Chuma, Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Reiner, John Jasperse, Claudia La Rocca, Jon Kinzel, Charles Atlas, and playwriter Sibyl Kempston. I spent a significant time assisting Trisha Brown, and had the privilege collaborating and performing our solo work. With this rich history of dancing, teaching collaborating, and freelancing, I’ve garnered the importance of inclusion in my own work, pushing my post-modern sensibilities and engagement with other dance disciplines and backgrounds. This has included middle school and high school movement programs and creating work on NYCBallet for principal dancers Sara Mearns, Taylor Stanley, Lauren Lovett, and Jared Angle, and American Ballet Theater principal, Devon Tuescher.

Honors include Doris Duke Impact Award, Guggenheim Fellow, Jerome Robbins New Essential Works Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, two Bessie Awards, Gibney’s DIP Residency Grant, Lower Manhattan Cultural Center 2 -year extended Life Grant, and Center for Ballet Arts Fellow, and NYSCA dance/force choreographers initiative awardee.

Currently, I teach at Barnard College, Sarah Lawrence College, and as a guest at Yale University.