University at Buffalo (UB)
Melanie Aceto
MFA
Director of Undergraduate Dance
Associate Professor
Research Topics
Contemporary Physical Practices, Dance Pedagogy, Dance Composition, and Dance Lineage
Education
- MFA, New York University Tisch School of the Arts
- BA, State University of New York at Geneseo
Bio
Melanie Aceto is a dancer, choreographer, educator and researcher whose creative interests are in interdisciplinary solo and large group works. Melanie’s choreography has been performed internationally in Toronto, Guatemala City, Guatemala, and Bogotá, Colombia, nationally at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and at venues in Philadelphia, North Carolina, Atlanta, Virginia, Kentucky, and in New York City at The Kitchen, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Ailey CitigroupTheater, The Duplex Cabaret and John Ryan Theater, among others, and in Buffalo, NY at venues including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Art Center. She regularly collaborates with composers, designers and poets presenting work in non-dance venues including silos, warehouses, moving barges, museums, and store front windows, among others. Notable works include Cloud, a piece conceived and created in collaboration with architect/designer Michael J. Rogers, for six dancers using over 3,000 square feet of plastic to create a fluid and fluctuating environment, and Liaison, a work for piano and dancer conceived by and made in collaboration with composer Megan Beugger.
Melanie’s research interests include investigating models for teaching dance composition and modern dance, and creating resources for both. Her work has been published in the Journal of Dance Education, the Dance Education in Practice journal, and has been presented at many National Dance Education Organization conferences and the joint Society for Dance History Scholars/Congress on Research in Dance conference. Current projects include Choreographic Lineage, a web-based resource presenting the lineage of dance artists http://choreographiclineage.buffalo.edu and the Digital Dance Access working group https://adhc.lib.ua.edu/danceprogress/
At UB, Melanie teaches all levels of modern technique, improvisation, graduate and undergraduate dance composition, and choreographs regularly for departmental concerts. She is certified in Pilates mat, is a yoga practitioner and an avid Latin dancer.
Choreographic Works:
Please visit melanieaceto.com
Projects:
Choreographic Lineage: choreographiclineage.buffalo.edu
Choreographic Lineage is an interactive, web-based genealogical network illustrating connections between dance artists, their teachers, their students, their collaborators and people who they were influenced by. Choreographic Lineage is intended as a global resource for investigating artistic influences, career paths, choreographic connections, and complex and obscure relationships.
Digital Dance Access Project: https://adhc.lib.ua.edu/danceprogress/
Publications:
Integrating Compositional Forms into Technique Class. Dance Education in Practice. 6:4, 16-22. 2020
Developing the Dance Artist in Technique Class: The Alteration Task. Journal of Dance Education. (12)1: 14-20. 2012
Conference Presentations:
National Dance Educators Organization, Atlanta, GA
Rejecting the Rubric: Using Video to Cultivate Creative Process and Critical Response. October 2022
Women in Dance Leadership Conference, Philadelphia, PA
Envisioning Digital Dance Spaces for Diversity and Inclusion panel presentation. October 2019
Dancing Digitally 3-Day Symposium, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL
Invited participant among 18 leaders in the field of dance including scholars, educators, choreographers, archivists and filmmakers. May 2019
National Dance Education Organization Conference, Washington, DC
Presented the Choreographic Lineage project. November 2016
Digital Scholarship Week, University at Buffalo
Presented the Choreographic Lineage project. February 2016
Hard Coded Humanities Conference, University of Rochester.
Presented the Choreographic Lineage project. April 2016
National Dance Education Organization Conference, Chicago, IL
Presented the Choreographic Lineage project. November 2015
Congress on Research in Dance/Society for Dance History Scholars joint conference, Iowa City, Iowa
Presented the Choreographic Lineage project. November 2014