Melinda Jean Myers

Director
Biography

Myers earned her MFA from University of Iowa (2012) where she received a Stanley Graduate Award for International Research and Iowa Arts Fellowship.  She earned her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005). She was honored to perform internationally with the Trisha Brown Dance Company for four years (2006-2010), and has been privileged to re-stage repertory works. As a member of The Cambrians (Chicago, IL) her collaborative work Clover (2015) was named one of Chicago Tribunes Top 10 Dances of 2015. She also created three new works as a devising ensemble member of Lucky Plush Productions (Chicago, IL) and toured nationally with the company for ten years. (2012-2022).

In fall 2022, Myers presented her collaborative dance-theater work, Unfinished Business, created and performed with Kurt Chiang, at Links Hall in Chicago, IL. This work was supported by an Embodied Research Grant, awarded by Lucky Plush Productions. In her review of the work, written for the Performance Response Journal, Clara Nizrad remarks, "Myers and Chiang remind us that dance-theater is alive and well, retaining its emphasis on embodied collaborations between people, between speech and movement, between humor and tenderness, and between what occurs on stage and what lies just beyond its four white walls."

In the last few years, Myers has made collaborative works with Donika Kelly, Kurt Chiang, Ramin Roshandel, Heidi Wiren, Mathanki Kalapathy, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Lex Leto, Laila Franklin, Kate Vincek and University of Iowa Dance students. Her interdisciplinary works have been presented in South Korea, Germany, New York and throughout the Midwest.

Melinda Jean Myers