Melanie is a soprano and dancer reframing opera through dance. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of MANX (Movement Arts Nature Exchange), a dance/opera fusion company based in New York City. Through MANX, Melanie recently had artist residencies at Bearnstow (Mount Vernon, Maine) and Moulin Belle (Mareuil en Perigord, France), has collaborated with the Brooklyn Motion Capture Dance Ensemble (BMCDE) on multiple projects, and collaborated with videographer Amy Zhang to create a dance film of her choreographed take on Ach ich liebte, from Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. 

Prior to launching MANX, Melanie completed artist residencies at Bearnstow (Mount Vernon, Maine) and Moulin Belle (Mareuil en Perigord, France), and presented Three Women/One Body, her dance/opera fusion work featuring arias by Handel, Mozart, and Bellini, at The Tank. She has presented choreographed operatic works with Spoke the Hub Dance and Borne Dance Company, and showcased her choreographed take on Jake Heggie's Eve Song with Take Root at Green Space, produced by Green Space Studios. In addition to performing, Melanie is completing prerequisite courses for the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies through a Work/Study Internship with Alexandra Beller/Dances, and is part of the artist and writing ensemble of Your Faithful Reader, an experimental theatre company curated by Miriam Wasmund.

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Additionaprojects include performing with Your Faithful Reader at Triskelion Arts, and presenting her choreography at National Sawdust, Triskelion Arts, GreenSpace, Spoke the Hub, Bridge for Dance, SMUSH Gallery, and in guest appearances with Borne Dance Company and Reaction Dance Company. In addition, she was a member of the 23/24 Maestra Music Mentorship Program, an initiative pairing emerging artists pursuing careers in music making with established female or non-binary artists.​

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She holds degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (BM/Voice with a Dance Minor) and Arizona State University (DMA/Voice & MM/Opera Performance), where her graduate research focused on using Gaga Movement Language and Bartenieff Fundamentals to help singers develop deeper kinesthetic connections to their vocal technique. She currently lives in the Bronx, and studies with Riley McKinch.