MELISSA ANDERSON, A DALLAS, TX NATIVE, BEGAN DANCING AT THE AGE OF FIVE AT THE BALLET ACADEMY OF TEXAS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF LISA SLAGLE. SHE HAS PROUDLY RECEIVED THE COCHRAN AND JERRY CALLOWAY SCHOLARSHIP (2014), THE BUSTER COOPER JAZZ SCHOLARSHIP (2013), AND THE TEXIE WATERMAN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP (2012) FROM THE DANCE COUNCIL OF NORTH TEXAS. SHE CONTINUED HER DANCE STUDIES AT THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL UNDER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR LAWRENCE RHODES IN NEW YORK CITY. THROUGHOUT HER JUILLIARD CAREER, MELISSA HAS HAD THE HONOR OF PERFORMING WORLD PREMIERS AND REPERTOIRE OF SHARON EYAL, ASZURE BARTON, JIŘÍ KYLIÁN, CRYSTAL PITE, PAM TANOWITZ, GUSTAVO SANSANO, ALEXANDRA DAMIANI AND RICHARD ALSTON. AFTER GRADUATING IN MAY 2018 WITH A BFA IN DANCE, MELISSA CONTINUED HER CAREER IN THE METROPOLITAN OPERA’S PRODUCTION OF “SAMSON ET DALILA”. SHE HAS ALSO RECENTLY DANCED IN AUSTIN MCCORMICK’S COMPANY XIV IN THEIR PRODUCTION OF “NUTCRACKER ROUGE”