Melissa Melpignano, PhD
Teaching
My approach to dance and interdisciplinary pedagogy is radiant with the conviction that each student–with their unique stories, backgrounds, and aspirations–already possesses the infinite potential to develop in their own truest self and contribute to enhancing our communal living. As an educator and mentor, I commit to the mission of guiding my students through the process of unleashing their talents and creativity, decolonizing their minds and bodies from inherited hegemonic structures of oppression, and envisioning a future of impact, dignity, and full realization. Inspired by the teachings of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, bell hooks, Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade, and the methods of ecological pedagogy, in my classes, students embrace their active role in a collective transformational project, engaging with dance and performance as practices of interconnectedness, social responsibility, and positive change-making.
Student Performance Curation
Courses I teach
I teach a variety of courses, often adding subtitles to the catalog-designated names anticipating future curriculum reparations!):
Ballet Techniques (Vaganova, Cecchetti, Royal Academy of Dancing, and contemporary ballet styles);
Critical Ballet Studies; Somatics; Global and Diasporic Dance Histories; Theories of Dance; Performance Studies; Biopolitics and Critical Theories; Postcolonial, Neocolonial, and Decolonial Theories;
Gender and Feminist Theories and Movements; Dance Activism; Choreography;
Dance and Performance in Israel/Palestine and Middle Eastern/MENA/SWANA contexts; all levels of (semi)codified (Release, Cunningham, Limón, etc.) and uncodified Modern and Contemporary techniques
Contact me if you're interested in knowing more about my original syllabi
“Decolonizing Ballet,”
“Performance Studies on the Border(s),”
“Choreography and Israel: (Hi)stories of Nationalism and Dissent,”
“Jewish and Israeli Identities in Dance and Performance,”
“Dancing the Mediterranean: Retheorizing Movement(s),”
“The Body of the Soldier: Histories of Military Corporealities.”
Thanks to my students (from left to right) Camila Hellmuth, Saul Martinez,
Renee Avina Rodriguez, and Rhaymee Arch for granting permission to share this documentation.© MM
Drawing on my Somatic training in the Franklin Method® ("move better to feel better"!), my ballet students at UTEP utilize the power of imagery and hand-modeling to better understand and perform the en dehors (external rotation) as a dynamic and in-progress movement.
At the end of the session, some shared that they never thought they could reach such a range of turn-out in their hip joint!
Alonzo King reminds us that "art is inside of the artist... it's already inherent...,"
"You don't do arabesque... You are arabesque!"
Similarly, I like to approach technique not as an external force but as an available tool that we can explore in a multiplicity of ways, from the very specificity of our own body and experience, so to find our own best way to manifest it and share it.
Certifications
I have completed a teacher training in Progressing Ballet Technique,
and I'm pursuing a somatics teacher certification in the Franklin Method ®, which I'll complete in March 2023.