Photo: JD Urban
Melanie George
Dramaturg
Melanie George is a dance educator, choreographer, scholar, and certified movement analyst. She is the founder and director of Jazz Is… Dance Project, and Dramaturg and Audience Educator at Lumberyard Center for Film and Performing Arts. As an institutional and freelance dramaturg, she has contributed to projects by David Neumann & Marcella Murray, Raja Feather Kelly, Susan Marshall & Company, Machine Dazzle, and Urban Bush Women among others. Current projects include new works by Kimberly Bartosik/daela and Caleb Teicher & Company.
A highly sought after teacher and choreographer of the neo-jazz aesthetic, her jazz choreography is regularly commissioned by colleges throughout the United States. Melanie has presented her research on jazz improvisation and pedagogy throughout the U.S., in Canada and Scotland, and founded the global advocacy website jazzdancedirect.com.
Publications include “Jazz Dance, Pop Culture, and the Music Video Era” in Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches and “Imbed/In Bed: Two Perspectives on Dance and Collaboration” in Working Together in Qualitative Research. Melanie is a featured contributor in the upcoming documentary on the history of jazz dance, UpRooted: The Journey of Jazz, and a contributing jazz dance scholar to the Jacob’s Pillow archives. Melanie has worked as a consultant in the arts for over a decade, applying her expertise in scholarship and education to assist artists and arts organizations in articulating language and facilitating the development of creative work.
In addition to her work with independent choreographers and dance educators, Melanie has provided professional services for New England Dance on Tour, The Joyce Theatre, The Guggenheim Museum, BAM, and Stephen Petronio Company, among others. She has held teaching positions at Kent State University and Wilson College, and is the former director of the dance program at American University.
