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

• Nomination for Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program - UTEP College of Liberal Arts (08/24/2023)
• 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 - Choreograph multiple pieces - Metamorphoses (12/01/2023-12/10/2023). UTEP Theatre and Dance. El Paso, TX, United States. Melissa Melpignano.
• Dance - Choreograph piece - Whistles the Sea (04/28/2023-04/30/2023). UTEP Dept. of Theatre and Dance. El Paso, TX, United States. Melissa Melpignano. Mitzy Lira. Undergraduate. Madelyne Shaleen. Undergraduate. Laura Hellmuth.
• Dance - Musical Score creation/preparation - Co-Artistic Director of the dance festival Gathering for Water (04/15/2023-04/30/2023). UTEP Theatre and Dance and Rubin Center for the Visual Arts. El Paso, TX, United States. Melissa Melpignano. Sandra Lopez Ramirez.
• Dance - Choreograph piece - Teoquiyaoatl (03/09/2023-03/09/2023). National Hispanic Cultural Center. Albuquerque, NM, United States. Melissa Melpignano. Jensen Springer. Brianna Garcia. Undergraduate. Saul Martinez. Undergraduate.
• Art - Exhibition, One-Person - Teoquiyaoatl (Sacred Portal) (03/09/2023-03/09/2023). Alburquerque, NM, USA. Angel Cabrales. Melissa Melpignano. Jensen Springer. Brianna Garcia. Undergraduate. Saul Martinez. Undergraduate.
• Dance - Coaching - Nefesh (02/15/2023-12/31/2023). CJP Arts and Culture Impact Grant, Projects and Festivals Grant to Hebrew College from the Mass Cultural Council. Newton, MA, United States. Melissa Melpignano.
• 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 - 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. .
• Dance - Interdisciplinary work(s) - Performing Arts for Healthcare workshop (10/26/2023). UTEP and Texas Tech. El Paso, TX, United States. Melissa Melpignano. Amelia Rau.
• Dance - Choreograph piece - Walk with Amal (10/26/2023). UTEP. El Paso, TX, United States. Melissa Melpignano. .
• Dance - Interdisciplinary work(s) - Mapping the Río (04/27/2023). UTEP and City of El Paso. El Paso, TX, United States. Melissa Melpignano. Paola Alvarado. Undergraduate. Ana Berry. Undergraduate. Nicolas Bowman. Undergraduate. Katie Brown. Undergraduate. Phoenix Dawn Brownlee. Undergraduate. Aliah Candia. Undergraduate. Briana Carranco. Undergraduate. Daniella Cortinas. Undergraduate. Lauren Crotte. Undergraduate. Esmirna De La Cruz. Undergraduate. Ailis De Luna. Undergraduate. Keats (Catherine) Espinoza. Graduate. Leena Fernandez. Undergraduate. Gustavo Maas. Undergraduate. Saul Martinez. Undergraduate. Paola Martinez. Undergraduate. Chandell Molinar. Undergraduate. Sylvia Muñoz. Undergraduate. Lesly Pantoja. Undergraduate. Otis Pitts. Undergraduate. Nathalia Prada Uribe. Undergraduate. Hector Sanchez Perez. Undergraduate. Nicolas Silva. Graduate and Doctoral. Itzel Torres. Undergraduate. Brianne Williams. Undergraduate.

• Choreography and Borders Edward Elgar Publishing (in press), Melissa Melpignano.
• Corpografie del crollo e dell’abbandono: alcune pratiche di mutazione somatopolitica tra danza e letteratura (Corpographies of falling and abandonment: some practices of somatopolitical mutation between dance and literature) Narrativa 45 2023 (2023), Melissa Melpignano.
• A Necropower Carnival: Israeli Soldiers Dancing in the Palestinian Occupied Territories TDR The Drama Review 67 1 (2023), 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, Sadhana Chheda, Rebecca F. Mayer, Chyanne Reveles, Melissa Melpignano, Kristyn Ingram.
• 5-6-7-8...1000 hats! Aligning creative research, scholarship, pedagogy, and admin duties in neoliberal academia – within “Dance Leaders as ‘Role Models’ in Higher Education” (2023), Volume Denver, CO, Melissa Melpignano.
• Porosities of Groove: The Question of Gaga as a Choreographic Passport (2023), Volume London, UK, Melissa Melpignano.
• Choreocracy: The Bureaucratization of Dancing Bodies in the IDF’s Official and Unofficial Archives (2023), Volume NYU, New York, Melissa Melpignano.
• 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