Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Current city: NYC, NY

Age: 52 

Attended an arts high school? No, but my senior year was in a dance program, off site, offered by the public school district.

College and degree: BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase

Website: JodiMelnickDance.org

How you pay the bills: Teaching, performing, grants, fellowships, awards…

All of the dance hats you wear: Choreographer, dancer, teacher, collaborator, sound/costume designer, rehearsal director, wash/iron costumes, floor sweeper. I am pretty much the only one working for me, except when I am in the studio with dancers. 

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Describe your dance life in your….

20s: I went into a Dance Company (Nina Wiener Dance company) after graduating from college, first as an apprentice for the summer after graduation, and then as a company member. I had a focus on technique (taking ballet class, yoga, Pilates), developing a choreographic mind (as we made a lot of our own material to create the work), and learning how to socialize with older company members. I was learning the ropes about touring (how to pack, eat, sleep, prepare for a show, stay focused, explore a new city), being away from home, and traveling to Europe. After dancing in the company for 3 years, I left to pursue freelance work with many downtown choreographers. I met Sara Rudner and started working in the studio with her in my mid 20s. (I am still in the studio with her to this day.) Sara introduced me to Twyla Tharp, and I danced in the Tharp company for about 4 years, which brings me into my 30s.

My late 20s were spent diving into more experimental forms, improvisation, and working collaboratively. To earn extra income, because I was not always making enough as a performer here, I would collect unemployment and teach gymnastics, then was teaching professional dance classes here in NYC and abroad and getting more work in Europe as a freelancer. While freelancing, a typical day for me would be: class at 10, subway downtown for rehearsal,  leave that rehearsal 15 minutes early to run to the subway to get to another rehearsal 15 minutes late, run out to go teach or do an odd catering job, another rehearsal, go to a performance……lots of running around from the top of Manhattan to the depths of the East Village, to Brooklyn, to Queens…..always very mindful of taking care of my dancing body.

30s: Continuing all of the above – and still with Twyla, getting a taste of the uptown dance world, traveling a lot. Pursuing more freelance work with more choreographers – lots of performing, establishing connections through the dance world. Growing my teaching and time working in a studio alone as a practice. While dancing and continuing to make work with many other choreographers, I started thinking about making my own work and began with short solo pieces. Started working with Trisha Brown.

40s: Started, in earnest, identifying not only as a dancer but as a choreographer. Started showing my own work both nationally and internationally, getting more commissions to make work on various companies, but mainly interested in solo work. Mentoring younger students. Made a solo in collaboration with Trisha Brown.

50s: Choreographing and performing in my own work, making work for others, and teaching. Taking a little time off, paying attention to my personal life, and went on my first vacation! (That actually started in my late 40s.) Still exploring the collaborative relationship with artists.

In your own work, do you now use the term “contemporary dance,” or do you continue to use “modern dance?”

I don’t use either. 

If I had to use a term, it would be post modern.

The role of technology in your dance life (reading about dance, sharing details about your work, marketing, podcasts, blogs, etc):

-Teaching in NY at Barnard, Sarah Lawrence College,  NYU, Yale, BKYLN Studios for Dance, and in Dublin, Ireland.

-Two weeks at Jacob's Pillow working with 3 incredible ballet dancers – Sara Mearns (who invited me to make work on her), Gretchen Smith, and Jared Angle. We are in the workshop phase.

-Developing a new new solo for myself.  

I do something everyday: 1-1.5 hours of yoga and/or my own warm-up before rehearsal. I teach by example, so I am always moving. If it is warm enough outside, I also run for about a half hour a couple times a week. 

When I first started teaching (I was in my early 20s), it was mostly about me learning more about my own body, its capability, its availability. Through teaching, I became a different dancer; my articulation and awareness of the corporeal self grew exponentially.

Now, teaching is about the students; it is all for them. I see them, I concentrate on them. As my body is experiencing the detail and the pathways, I am relaying the information to them, for them.

• Why is dance (art) vital to the fabric of our culture?
• Why use dance as your expression to position yourself in the world?
• Choreography is not only the presence of steps but can also be the absence of movement. What do you think?

As I have always felt since the beginning of my dancing career – I believe in the profound expression and importance of the body, especially as I am getting older.