Meet The Dancers: Melissa Menard, Ensemble Dancer

I grew up dancing. My mother enrolled me on the advice of my pediatrician for the strengthening of my flat feet, and could never have known what a gift it would be to an otherwise shy girl like me. Dancing quickly became, from ballet at the tender age of four, through my ever-broadening exploration, my method of release, expression, and perfect freedom to become whatever and whomever my imagination wanted or my psyche needed. I danced all the way through college, teaching to pay for my school, and drinking in all the different styles I could access from my Nebraska home town. Over the years, I traveled to find teachers of Latin dance, ballroom and swing, stylized workshops from students of teachers like Bob Fosse and Alvin Ailey and, coming to Columbia in 2001, found a home at Dancearts, where I have taught Musical Theater, ballet technique, tap and yoga, and continue to study Modern Ballet with Maggie Dethrow, in a class of women in our 30s and 40s who continue to dance because there is just nothing that can ever replace it. 

 I was introduced to the idea of belly dance when Kandice Grossman and then-Dragonfly Christi Kelly took my adult ballet class at Dancearts and, while I was instantly intrigued, didn't start studying belly dance technique until 2 years later when, inspired by the diversity and familial nature of the belly dance community, and my friendship with Kandi, I let my fascination draw me in. I believe our learning should never end. I do not believe decline is an inevitable part of growing older. So, to find a thriving community of adult dancers still forging ahead into new creative endeavors, I couldn't resist, and continue to be fascinated, not only by the task of learning and training for a completely new expression of dance, but also by the task of telling such a powerful and necessary story as the one this show endeavors to tell.

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