Melanie Aceto is a dancer, choreographer, educator and researcher whose creative interests are in interdisciplinary solo and large group works. Melanie’s choreography has been performed internationally in Toronto, Guatemala City, Guatemala and Bogotá, Colombia, nationally at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and at venues in Philadelphia, North Carolina, Atlanta, Virginia, Kentucky, and in New York City at The Kitchen, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Ailey CitigroupTheater, The Duplex Cabaret and John Ryan Theater, among others, and in Buffalo, NY at the AKG Art Museum and the Burchfield Penney Art Center. She regularly collaborates with other artists presenting work in non-dance venues including silos, warehouses, moving barges, museums, and store front windows, among others. She often employs abundant materials such as plastic sheets, paper bags, newspaper and the like to support her work. Notable works include Cloud, a piece conceived and created in collaboration with architect/designer Michael J. Rogers, for six dancers using over 3,000 square feet of plastic to create a fluid and fluctuating environment; Liaison, a work for piano and dancer conceived by and created in collaboration with composer Megan Beugger that allows the dancer to bow the piano with fishing line; and Front Page, a septet danced in, on, and with loads of newspaper.

Melanie’s research interests include investigating models for teaching dance composition and modern technique and creating resources for both. Her work has been published in The Journal of Dance Education and Dance Education in Practice, and has been presented at National Dance Education Organization conferences, the Joint Society for Dance History Scholars/Congress on Research in Dance conference, and the Women in Dance Leadership conference. Current projects include Choreographic Lineage, a web-based resource presenting the lineage of dance artists www.choreographiclineage.buffalo.edu

Melanie earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and is currently an Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo.

msaceto2@gmail.com
585.201.0656

Post Performance Q+A. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2014).