Originally from Pesaro, Italy, Melissa began her artistic journey through a variety of geographical and cultural influences that she layered into her identity. After graduating from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, UK, in 2011, she moved to Istanbul, Turkey, in 2012 and lived there until 2017, a period that shaped her understanding of the international socio-political landscape and led her to critically question Eurocentric perspectives. Melissa then returned to the freelance scene, working internationally as a dancer and rehearsal director, collaborating with renowned artists and companies including Aakash Odedra (UK/IN), Cie7273 (CH), Art of Spectra (SE) and the Akram Khan Company (UK). Her experiences from these projects merged into a unique movement practice, which she passed on in workshops in Europe, Turkey, India and Iran. In 2020, Melissa moved to Germany to work with theatre director Falk Richter and choreographer Anouk Van Dijk at the Münchner Kammerspiele. At the same time, she deepened her artistic research in collaborations with colleagues such as Gizem Aksu, Rosana Ribeiro | Selva and TingAn Ying. She currently commutes between Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, where she is studying on the MA CoDE program at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst.