Melanie Clarke trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, U.K. She has a BA Honours in Dance Theatre and an MA degree in Dance Studies (distinction) focusing on Education, Dance Documentation and Reconstruction, and Choreography. In 1998 Melanie joined the Trinity Laban faculty and has had a number of management posts including BA1 Coordinator, Diploma in Dance Coordinator and is currently Programme Leader for the Dance Diploma Programmes. She is a Teaching Fellow of Trinity Laban and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She teaches Release-based technique, Choreological Studies, improvisation and choreography as well as creating new choreographic work on the students and tutoring student led projects. Melanie has also taught independently for dance companies such as; The Cholmondeleys and Featherstonehaughs, and Tanzcompanie Giessen as well as on International Summer Schools. She has danced with a variety of companies including Dance Republic (Sheffield); Twisted Collision (Manchester); Henrietta Hale and Co, Ben Ash & Rachel Lopez (London). Her choreographic work includes independent solo and group works and commissions, touring to venues such as The Lillian Baylis Theatre, Laban Theatre, Michaelis Theatre, The Place, the Bloomsbury Theatre in London and the Nakano Zero Theatre, Tokyo, Koblenz Stadttheater, TanzArt Geissen, Germany. As a choreographer she explores the relationship between expressive and formal structures in movement as well as investigating the communicative use of energy. As an educator her aim is to enable understanding through demystification of bodily and artistic processes. This is engendered by her knowledge of anatomy and physiology (with a focus on Fascial systems) as well as Rudolf Laban’s praxis and supported by her creative practice. Her research encompasses choreographic practice and movement analysis. She has scored Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A (with Jouke Kolff) which she has also reconstructed on students at Trinity Laban as part of repertoire projects and also for the MOVE: Choreographing You exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London in 2010. She collaborated with Valerie Preston-Dunlop on the re-creation of Laban’s Swinging Temple and contributed to Preston-Dunlop’s book Laban Man of Theatre. Her book entitled Essential Guide to Contemporary Dance Techniques is due for publication by the Crowood Press in March 2020.

Photo 2019 by James Keates