VCU Dance | About VCU Dance

Faculty

Melanie Richards (Associate Professor) is a dancer, actress, choreographer and teacher. She completed her BA and MA degrees in dance at UCLA and has also completed the course work for the MFA degree in acting in the Department of Theatre at VCU. She was a founding member of Eyes Wide Open Dance Theater (Los Angeles), toured nationally for three years with Margalit Dance Theater and was featured in her role as Betty Boop in Hollywood showcases and at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. More recently she performed with Doug Neilsen at ADF and with Chris Burnside at Dance Place in Washington, D.C. Ms. Richards’ teaching experience includes: Scripps College, CSU Fresno, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, Dartmouth College and Denison University. Her choreographic career includes more than 70 works in modern dance, classical jazz, rhythm tap, musicals and theater/dance pieces. In the summer of 2003 Melanie premiered Getting In/Getting Out at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, in collaboration with Scott Putman. Ms. Richards has been recognized with many prestigious awards, four Faculty-Grant-in-Aid awards, two VCU faculty leave awards for research and a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Most recently, Ms. Richards received a grant from the VCU Center for Teaching Excellence to commission Donald McKayle to create a new solo for her, which she was invited to perform in the Gala Concert at the Dancing Rebels Conference in Saratoga Springs, New York in August, 2005. Additionally, she continues to create new work for her rhythm tap group, D’Feet Percussion Ensemble.

Virginia Commonwealth University
School of the Arts
Department of Dance and Choreography
dance@vcu.edu
Date Last Modified: 9/6/2008