Melissa Melpignano is an Assistant Professor of Instruction and Director of Dance at UTEP. As a scholar-artist, she researches how performance theorizes and enhances livability in contested and border regions.

• Mellon Dance Studies Fellow - Mellon Foundation, Northwestern University (01/01/2019-12/31/2019)
• Fellow of the UCLA Collegium of University Teaching Fellows - University of California, Los Angeles (01/01/2016-12/31/2016)
• Selma Jeanne Cohen Award - Society of Dance History Scholars (01/01/2014-12/31/2014)
• Credit Swiss Award for Excellent Writing - Credit Swiss (01/01/2012-12/31/2012)

• Ph D in Culture and Performance, University of California, Los Angeles (2019)
• MA in European and Italian Studies, University of Lugano (2013)
• BA in Performance Studies, University of Venice Ca' Foscari (2010)
• BA in Contemporary Dance, University of Kent/London Contemporary Dance School (2005)

• Dance - Interdisciplinary work(s) - Experiencing the Bosque (11/05/2022). Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, UTEP Center for Environmental Resource Management (CERM). El Paso, TX, U.S.. Melissa Melpignano.
• Dance - Coaching - Borderline, directed by Kim McKean (10/21/2022-10/30/2022). UTEP Dept. of Theatre and Dance. El Paso, TX, U.S.. Melissa Melpignano.
• Dance - Perform multiple pieces - #documance - Solastalgia (09/28/2022-12/09/2022). The Rubin Center for the Visual Arts. El Paso, TX, U.S.. Melissa Melpignano.
• Dance - Create marketing/PR - 8 (05/10/2022-05/11/2022). UTEP Theatre and Dance. El Paso, TX, U.S.. Melissa Melpignano.
• Dance - Perform piece - L'Emancipazione delle Donne (05/10/2022-05/11/2022). UTEP Theatre and Dance. El Paso, TX, U.S.. Melissa Melpignano.
• Dance - Choreograph piece - CONCiERT0 - within "Motion Bound" (02/09/2022-02/12/2022). UTEP Dept. of Theatre and Dance. El Paso, TX, U.S.. Melissa Melpignano. Paola Alvarado. Undergraduate. Rhaymee Arch. Undergraduate. Génesis Barraza. Undergraduate. Brianna Garcia. Undergraduate. Hezekiah Grant-Myles. Undergraduate. Saul Martinez. Undergraduate. Gabriela Muñoz-Villanueva. Undergraduate.
• Dance - Interdisciplinary work(s) - #documance (@"That's What She Said" exhibition) (11/20/2021). Self produced, co-organized with UTEP Sculpture. El Paso, TX, USA. Melissa Melpignano. Jensen Springer.
• Dance - Choreograph piece - Dramaturgy for Panimundo (07/01/2021). PARC Performing Arts Research Center. Italy. Melissa Melpignano. Pietro Pireddu.
• Dance - Choreograph piece - Teoquiyaoatl (Sacred Portal) (05/27/2021). The Looking for America Project, UTEP-EASSI, The Centennial Museum. El Paso, TX. Melissa Melpignano. Jensen Springer. Graduate. Christopher Delgado. Graduate. Jennifer Morales. Undergraduate.
• Other - Teoquiyaoatl (Sacred Portal) (05/27/2021-05/28/2021). Interdisciplinary Exhibition Performance, Collaboration with UTEP Dance for the Looking For America Project out of Washington DC. Angel Cabrales. Melissa Melpignano. Jennifer Morales. Chris Delgado. Jensen Spring.
• Dance - Choreograph piece - The Uncolonized: Visions in the Parallel (10/25/2019). Chamizal Museum. El Paso, TX. Melissa Melpignano. Kaelin Walker. Undergraduate. Daniel Medina. Undergraduate. .

• A Necropower Carnival: Israeli Soldiers Dancing in the Palestinian Occupied Territories TDR The Drama Review 67 1 (in press), Melissa Melpignano.
• Italy’s Kilowatt Festival: Dancing an ‘Ethic of Living’ arts•meme (2022), Melissa Melpignano.
• Italy’s Santarcangelo Festival Counters Apocalyptic Narratives through Dance arts•meme (2022), Melissa Melpignano.
• A Golem for Protest: Julie Weitz’s My Golem AJS Perspectives (2021), Melissa Melpignano.
• Emanuel Gat Routledge (2021), Melissa Melpignano.
• Choreographing Livability after Oslo: Israeli Women Choreographers and Collective Responsibility Oxford University Press (2021), Melissa Melpignano.
• Black Lives Matter and Transnational Solidarity (Black Lives Matter e la solidarietà transnazionale) Vino Nuovo (2020), Melissa Melpignano.
• A Vocabulary Guide for Black Liberation (2020), Melissa Melpignano, Part of the collective Street Dance Activism.
• For a Different Sense of Time: Italian Dance Artists and Labor Rights during the Pandemic The Dancer-Citizen 10 (2020), Melissa Melpignano.
• Gradations of Presence: The Figure of Armida in 19th c. Dance Librettos McFarland (2019), Melissa Melpignano.

• Improving Patient-Provider Communication through a Theater of Healthcare Equity (2023), Volume Boston, MA, Amelia M. Rau, Melissa Melpignano, Kristyn Ingram, Adriana Dominguez, Sadhana Chheda, Hideaki Tsutsui, Mayra Morales, Jessica Calderon-Mora, Kim Mckean.
• Throwing like a Palestinian Girl: Resisting Resilience (2022), Volume Denver, CO, Melissa Melpignano.
• Undermining (Choreographic) Sovereignty: Piyyutim as a Tactic of Dance Composition (2022), Volume Minneapolis, MN, Melissa Melpignano.
• Expanding Academic Dance Outreach: Access, Belonging, and Interdisciplinarity on the Frontera (2022), Volume Atlanta, GA, Melissa Melpignano.
• Bailar es una lucha tierna. Recalibrating Resilience on the US-Mexico Frontera (2022), Volume Vancouver, Canada, Melissa Melpignano.
• Conference Organization (2022), Volume UTEP, Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, Melissa Melpignano.
• Respondent (2021), Volume Jerusalem/online, Melissa Melpignano.
• “Reckoning with the Legacy of Zionism: Choreographic Practices of Solidarity” (2021), Volume Urbana Champaign, Melissa Melpignano.
• “Ballet Online during the Pandemic: Physical and Emotional Care in the Digital Dance Classroom” (2021), Volume El Paso, Melissa Melpignano.

• Middle Eastern Dance Artists and Water Rights