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Testimonials

"I don't wish for life to imitate art...
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I wish for life to be art." - Carrie Fisher

Melissa has performed as a solo dancer and troupe member in both amateur and professional settings including but not limited to the Anchorage Concert Association's Opening Night Gala for Cirque Dreams, UAA's Dance Together Alaska Festival, Anchorage Downtown Partnership's Saturday Concert and Cultural Performance Series, Anchorage Downtown Partnership's Fire and Ice Celebration, Alaska's 50th Anniversary Gala, Children's Dance Theatre's Nutcracker Sweets, The American Red Cross Mardi Gras Celebration 2009, ConocoPhillips Family Picnic, Anchorage Opera Opening Night Gala for Italian Girl from Algiers, The Alaska Support Industry Alliance's "Meet Alaska" Conference, Alaska Design Forum and the International Gallery for Contemporary Art AND the Anchorage Museum's "Changing North" FREEZE Project artist, UAA TFYP's production of "Ashlad and the Good Helpers", The Girdwood Forest Fair, The Sustainable Living Festival, Sheila Wyne's Annual Fundraiser, Aksana Danilava's "Earthquakes and Hips Shakes" show, Danielle Lawler's "Carpe Nocturne" show, Carrie Moore's "Secret's of the Oasis" show, the Seward Arts and Music Festival, First Friday performances at the Indigo, Ship Creek Center, Woolies and Laughing Lotus Yoga Studio, the Solace International fundraiser (to help build schools for girls in Afghanistan), the Anchorage Folk Festival, VivaVoom Burlesque shows,  The Municipality of Anchorage’s Haunted Trail and Vernal Eternal, the Queen of Raks Sharqi competition in Dallas, the Three Barons Renaissance Faire, Alaska Meets the Nile, Where the Middle East meets the Frozen North, the Alaska State Fair, Summer Solstice Festival, the D Street Festival, Saturday Market and many others.  She was a movement coach for the Anchorage Opera Ensemble's 2010 production of "Kismet", choreographer or co-choregrapher for Barefoot Muse, Nomadia, Wild Sweet Orange Dance Theatre, and Ciccia Bella, a guest choreographer for the 2006 West High Holiday Showcase and Mu'Azzazz and a featured dancer at Istanbul Café.  Other restaurant work includes Aladdin's and Little Italy as a special guest performer.  She has also appeared as a fortune teller and dancer in several Art Services North productions.

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"I am a dancer now.  Not only in my body, but in my heart and soul as well.  Thank you [Melissa] for that." 

-Robin Rosay

"...Theatrical, but more than that. Theatrical, entertaining and dynamic..." 

              - Craig Walling

"...A lyrical dancer; playful and engaging." 

-Kathy Burgoyne

"Melissa dreams in technicolor." 

-Julie Schweizer


"Let us dance in the sun...
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...wearing wild flowers in our hair." -Susan Polis Shutz

"Wherever a dancer stands...
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...is holy ground." - Martha Graham

"Well behaved women...
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...seldom make History." -L. T. Ulrich, Photo credit Mary Virginia Stroud

Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness...
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...has never danced in the rain." ~Author Unknown