Melissa Beck Matjias

Lecturer of Dance
mlbeck@umich.edu
734-647-9336

Education:
A.A. (English), College of the Canyons
B.A. (English), M.F.A., Univ. of Michigan

Melissa Beck Matjias has built a reputation both as a ballet instructor and a choreographer. She is the 2006 recipient of the Maggie Allesee New Choreography Award presented by the Michigan Dance Council. Additionally, Melissa is on the ballet faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp. In 2004, she was invited to present her choreography in Chicago at Around the Coyote. Melissa has choreographed for dance, opera, theatre, and musical theatre productions. She has been commissioned to create works for the Bates Dance Festival: Youth Arts Program (1999), Bowling Green State University (2001), multiple productions for University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and Chamber Music Ann Arbor (2003). Ms. Beck Matjias is a member of Ann Arbor Dance Works, the resident professional company of the U of M Dance Department.

Before joining the dance faculty at the University of Michigan, Melissa was a Teaching Artist for Arts Unlimited: A Lincoln Center Institute, and a Teaching Artist for Ohio Wolf Trap. With Arts Unlimited, she conducted residencies in elementary and middle schools and served on the faculty for the annual summer workshop for schoolteachers. Ms. Beck Matjias was a presenter for Arts Unlimited at The Association of Institutes for Aesthetic Education at Colorado Mountain College in Aspen (2000). As a Teaching Artist for Ohio Wolf Trap, Melissa conducted residencies in Head Start pre-school programs as well as participated in classroom teacher training. The residencies were based on Wolf Trap’s model for using the performing arts to facilitate early childhood learning.

Ms. Beck Matjias has served on the dance faculties of the University of Toledo and Hillsdale College where she co-directed and choreographed student dance companies in addition to teaching ballet, modern technique, and composition.

Melissa trained and performed at length with Susan Marlys Zaliouk, former soloist with The Royal Ballet, and performed extensively in Los Angeles as a free-lance artist.

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