Melissa Monteros
Monteros is an active performer/choreographer as well as an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary in the Dance Program. She is the co-founder of W&M Physical Theatre (with Wojciech Mochniej, Poland) and is artistic director, choreographer and performer with that company. Her work with W&M Physical Theatre takes her through many parts of Europe as well as performing in Canada. She has been guest teacher for numerous dance companies, universities and festivals. With Mochniej, she founded 2 annual dance festivals in Poland, Dance Explosions, and the International Festival of Improvisation in Zielona Gora. Monteros has a Master of Arts (Dance) from UCLA, and a BFA (Dance) from the University of Utah. She is continually engaged in new training activities, including: workshops and study in Bartenieff Fundamentals, Pilates, Feldenkrais, Alexander, the Itcush Method, and is a certified apprentice teacher in Gyrokinesis. She is a Fulbright award recipient and has received honorary awards from two institutions in Gdansk, Poland for her contributions to dance in that city. Monteros' performance credits include work with choreographers Avi Kaiser (Belgium), Davida Monk, Darcy McGehee, Erin O'Connor (Canada), Alpo Altokoski (Finland), and with the contemporary dance company Strong Wind Wild Horses, Seattle, among others. As well as a significant body of work on her own company, she has created work for Silesian Dance Theatre, Jojo Oulu Dance Centre, Risa Steinberg (NY), Springboard Dance Collective, EKO Dance Projects, Children in Dance,The State Ballet School in Bytom, for professional theatre and film, including collaborations with theatre director Michael Hackett. Her choreography has been presented at festivals in Austria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Canada and the USA.
