Melanie Ríos Glaser has been a part of The Wooden Floor family since 1999, when she was recruited as a guest choreographer by the organization’s Founder, Beth Burns. After becoming the organizations’ Artistic Director in 2005, Melanie was again promoted to Executive & Artistic Director in June of 2008. Born and raised in Guatemala, Melanie received her BFA from the Juilliard School in 1994, and was named a Kennedy Center Fellow in 1998. Based in Paris as a Fulbright Scholar during 2003-2004, she worked in the genre of dance improvisation and then completed another year in Dusseldorf, Germany before moving to Orange County.

Melanie has created more than 30 pieces for professional companies and dance schools such as the Group Motion Dance Company in Philadelphia, the Ballet Moderno y Folklórico de Guatemala, the Ballet de Cali, Colombia, her own Mosquito Dance Company, and The Wooden Floor/Saint Joseph Ballet. Her work has been performed in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, France, Colombia, Brazil, Philadelphia and New York.

As a dance educator for over ten years, Melanie has taught dance technique, composition, contact improvisation and dance history to professional dancers, actors, pre-professional dance students, and youth. Melanie was certified in 2003, as a somatic educator at Moving on Center, a school for participatory arts and somatic research in Oakland, California. She has been a guest teacher at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and most recently at UCI.

As a solo improvisational artist, Melanie has been invited to perform her series of site-specific improvisations in Europe and Central America in commissions by several prestigious arts festivals. Melanie is known for her interest in contact improvisation dance and enjoys the processes involved in working as part of a group.