Made of Motion: Melanie Aceto Contemporary Dance 
An evening of dance by Melanie Aceto
Burchfield Penny Art Center, Buffalo, NY
April 5th and 6th, 2019

Works presented: Fiefdom, Capsize, Tranquil Unrest, Vent, Choreography for Disembodiment and Dancer Mad

Choreography for Disembodiment
A 6 minute dance for camera work

Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY
Filmmaker: Kalpana Subramanian
Choreographer and Performer: Melanie Aceto
Music: Strange Objects by Cassie Wieland
2019

The Blue
Big Orbit Gallery, Buffalo, NY
April 27th, 2019

An evening-length collaborative movement and film exhibit.
Choreographer, co-artistic director and performer: Melanie Aceto
Visual Artist: Hanae Utamura
Performers: Melanie Aceto, Michaela Neild, Phil Wackerfuss

Indeterminancy Festival
Silo City, Buffalo, NY
May 14 – 19th, 2018

Emergence: An evening-long live music, aerial and dance performance.
Choreographic Direction: Melanie Aceto and Jenna Del Monte
Artistic Direction: Stanzi Vaubel

Madame Mathieu’s Soiree
The Duplex Cabaret Theater, New York, NY
February 2018

Work presented: Fiefdom

Note the Self; a concert of works by Paul Matteson
That Time I Pinned You Down
Flickenger Theater, Buffalo, NY
2017

Excursions Into Unknowable Worlds
Hi-Temp Warehouse, Buffalo, NY
An evening-long live music and dance performance
May 2016

Choreographic Direction: Melanie Aceto
Artistic Direction: Stanzi Vaubel

Gallery Dances at the Burchfield Penney
Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY
November 2016

Work presented: Couplet
Choreographer: Melanie Aceto
Performers: Melanie Aceto and Phil Wackerfuss

Madame Mathieu's Soiree
Duplex Cabaret Theater
61 Christopher Street, New York NY
March 10th, 2016

Work presented: Vent
Choreographer and Performer: Melanie Aceto

 A Musical Feast
Burchfield Penney Art Center
1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY  14222
May 8th, 2015

Work presented:  Vent
Choreographer and Performer: Melanie Aceto
 

MATA Festival/NYC
The Kitchen 512 W 19th St, New York NY 10011
April 15th, 2015

Founded by Philip Glass, Eleonor Sandresky, and Lisa Bielawa in 1996, MATA presents a week-long festival of music by composers under age forty each spring in New York City.  Each festival presents up to thirty works by young composers, at least three to four of which are newly commissioned.  Performers on past MATA festivals have included: the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gamelan Son of Lion, The Knights Chamber Orchestra, So Percussion, L'Arsenale (Italy), Signal, JACK Quartet, Quartet New Generation, Calder Quartet, Argento Ensemble, Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne, Either/Or, NOW Ensemble, Newspeak, VOX Vocal Ensemble, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and many more.  

Work Presented: Liaison
Choreographic Collaboration: Melanie Aceto and Megan Beugger
Performer: Melanie Aceto
      Festival:  http://matafestival.org/mata-festival/2015-mata-festival/
     NY Times Review:
      http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/arts/music/review-mata-festivals-sounds-of-play.html?_r=0
     Wall Street Journal Review:  http://www.wsj.com/articles/kids-these-days-1429566089

Dance Canvas/Atlanta
Rialto Center for the Arts
80 Forsyth St NW, Atlanta, GA 30303
January 23rd and 24th, 2015

Work Presented: Bide
Choreography and Performance: Melanie Aceto

Rochester Fringe Festival/Merged II
Geva Theatre Center Fielding Nextstage
2014

Saturday 9/20 at 9:00pm
Sunday 9/21 at 7:30pm
Wednesday 9/24 at 6pm

MERGED returns to Geva Theatre after last year’s critically acclaimed “Critic’s Picks” performances. This year, international choreographers Heather Roffe and James Hansen join forces with renowned choreographer Melanie Aceto for MERGED II. City Newspaper wrote of MERGED 2013: It "seemed new and fresh, yet it was still accessible and, at times, even poignant:" “I was flat out amazed;" and "I was captivated by...some very exciting dancing."  Come see how MERGED continues to excite both new and seasoned dance audiences!

Works presented:  Vent and Advocate

Buffalo Infringement Festival/2014
“Shifting Density” Live Music and Dance
Friday, August 1st
6:00 – 8:00pm
The Dress Shop at 89 Allen Street
All ages. Cost: Donation

Female bodies tightly pack themselves into the window display at The Dress Shop at 89 Allen Street. Maneuvering in slow motion, the bodies negotiate each other as they create both the dense space through which to travel and the traveling. Live music by Lawrence Rizzuto and friends will accompany the dancers. In this dance installation piece composed by Melanie Aceto, the audience is invited to come at any time, and stay for as long as they wish. http://www.melanieaceto.com/

Buffalo Infringement Festival/2014
“Tuesday Evening at Hallwalls"

Liaison
July 29th 8-10pm
Hallwalls Cinema
341 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14202
$5 to $10 suggested donation

Liaison is a work for piano and dancer conceived by Megan Beugger and made in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Melanie Aceto. In this piece, Beugger explores the duality of roles for the dancer as musician and the piano as both provider and inhibitor of sound.  This work questions the primacy of movement vs. sound and the possession of control.

Buffalo Infringement Festival/2014
July 26th at 1:00 and 27th at 2:00, 2014

Dance Sampler - A deliciously tasteful program of contemporary dances by Melanie Aceto, Anne Burnidge, Laurie MacFarlane, and Ruben Ornelas.

Karpeles Manuscript Library
453 Porter Ave.
Buffalo, New York 14201

Melanie Aceto’s solo, “Vent,” uses breath to create a score that both accompanies and drives her movement. "Advocate", also by Aceto, is a highly physical duet. “Passing” by Laurie MacFarlane is a collage of found movement set against a backdrop of spoken word and familiar song. “Barrio Poems,” a solo by Ruben T. Ornelas is set to the poetry of Joaquin Zihuatanejo interspersed with Mexican folk music. "Permeable" by Anne Burnidge explores the delicate line between enough and too much. 

Made of Motion: A Concert of Contemporary Dance by Melanie Aceto

Albright-Knox Art Gallery/Buffalo
Friday, April 4th 2014 at 8pm
$5 general admission / FREE for Members 
Auditorium

Melanie Aceto Contemporary Dance, a modern dance company based in Buffalo, presents an evening of dance exploring dynamic range through gesture, breath, and improvisation.

Melanie Aceto is a modern dancer, choreographer and educator. Her creative interests are in interdisciplinary solo and large group works. Recent projects include the creation of Cloud, a work for six dancers and 3,000 square feet of plastic made in collaboration with architect/designer Michael Rogers; Liaison, a new solo for piano and dancer made in collaboration with composer Megan Beugger; and In To Selves, a piece for voice and dancer with Turkish composer Esin Gunduz.

Her work has been performed internationally in Toronto, Guatemala, and Germany, and nationally at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, in Las Vegas, Virginia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, in Ohio as part of the Heidelberg New Music Festival, in New York City at the Studio Museum in Harlem, REVERB dance festival, Cool NY, D.U.M.B.O Dance Festivals, and the American Dance Guild, and numerous venues in Rochester and Buffalo, New York. 

Melanie’s research interests include investigating models for teaching dance composition and modern technique and creating resources for both. Current projects include Choreographic Lineage, a web-based resource presenting the lineage of choreographers and dance artists in modern dance. 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, teaching all levels of modern technique, improvisation, and choreography.

Burchfield Penney Arts Center/Buffalo

Part of the Words exhibit

Sunday, April 13, 2014, 3:30–5 pm

Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Auditorium  

"...writing paper was not allowed  at the Monteville State Jail, in Uncasville, Connecticut, where Sanders resided August 8-24, 1961 on a charge  attempting to swim aboard a Polaris submarine in a peace demonstration, so this poem was created on the insides of cigarette packs and scrolls of toilet paper.  then smuggled out in his shoe."

Jon Lehrer invites 3 dancer/choreographers to create new works inspired by Poem From Jail, a poem by Edward Sanders. The poem will be read be three different readers including Sanders, Michael Basinski and Annette Taylor . The readers will work with the choreographers in the interpretation of the poems. Dancers include Melanie Aceto, Leah Fiore and Nancy Hughes. 

Advance tickets are available by calling 716-878-6011 during gallery hours or through PayPal by clicking the links on the right side of this page.

Burchfield Penney Art Center

1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, NY, 14222

 Burchfield Penney Arts Center/Buffalo

Friday, October 11, 2013, 8–10 pm
A Musical Feast performs as part of M&T Second Friday

The Friday, October 11, 8pm concert at the Burchfield Penney looks to be one of the most original in the group’s history. Megan Beugger, composer of Liaison, collaborated intensively with the talented modern dancer Melanie Aceto to develop a work that proved to be one of the most original works at this year’s June in Buffalo new music festival. Aceto will also feature prominently in the premiere of Defence, Israeli composer Moshe Shulman’s newest work. Robert Berkman has had a connection for many decades with Buffalo’s QRS piano roll company, and he has made a career out of preserving the legacy of the piano roll. His portion of the program will expand on his recent well-received pianola recital at the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Buy tickets online ($20 "not yet" members/$10 Burchfield Penney members/students) (to the right) or call 716-878-6011 during gallery hours. 

Artists & Models: Showoffs/Buffalo 
Saturday, September 29th 
9:00pm - 2:00am 
Pierce Arrow Building 
1685 Elmwood Ave. 
Buffalo, NY

Vision of Sound/NYC 
A concert of live music and dance 
Sunday, August 26,  2010
1:00pm - 2:00pm 
Jan Hus 
351 E 74th Street, New York, NY 10021 
Free!

 Made of Motion: A Concert of Contemporary Dance by Melanie Aceto

Friday, July 6, 2012, 8:30 pm

FREE for Members
$5 for non-members
Albright-Knox Art Gallery - Auditorium
1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY

Melanie Aceto Contemporary Dance, a modern dance company based in Buffalo, presents a beautiful evening of lush and comedic contemporary dance that will inspire, inform, and challenge audiences to perceive more fully.

Part of M&T FIRST FRIDAYS @ THE GALLERY

Burchfield Penney Art Gallery/Buffalo 
Melanie Aceto Contemporary Dance performs Cloud 
Friday, June 8, 2012, 6:30 & 7:30 pm 
East Gallery 
1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222

 In Concert.../Buffalo
Melanie Aceto, Anne Burnidge, Starr Foster and James Hansen 
May 5th 7:30pm, 2012
Center for the Arts Black Box Theatre 
University at Buffalo 

 In Concert.../Rochester
Melanie Aceto, Anne Burnidge, Starr Foster and James Hansen 
May 4th, 2012
Tango Café 
389 Gregory Street 
Rochester, NY

 Vision of Sound/Syracuse
Concert of Live Music and Dance
Syracuse, NY 
4pm Sunday, March 25, 2012 
Carrier Theater, Civic Center, 411 Montgomery St 
Tickets: $15, $12 senior/student, $5 dance students 
Available via snm@societyfornewmusic.org or at the door

Vision of Sound/Rochester
Concert of Live Music and Dance
Rochester, NY 
7:30pm Friday, March 23, 2012 
Hochstein Music Hall 
50 Plymouth Avenue North   
Tickets available at the door 

 Dance Charlotte!
February 24th, 2012
Duke Power Theatre 
Spirit Square 
345 N. College Street 
Charlotte, NC