Professor
Junior and Senior Undergraduate Advisor

Academic Areas
Ballet
School of Dance Advising

Melissa Lowe studied dance in New York City at the School of American Ballet with master teachers Stanley Williams and Alexandra Danilova, most notably. She continued her training in New York, earning a scholarship to the American
Ballet Theatre School, under the direction of Leon Danielian and Patricia Wilde, where she was an apprentice to the company.

Upon graduating high school from Professional Children's School in New York City, Ms. Lowe joined Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre as a Soloist. Positions followed as a Soloist with the Houston Ballet and Principal Dancer with Pacific
Northwest Ballet in Seattle.

Ms. Lowe has performed soloist and principal roles in many major American cities and has danced more than 100 different works from established classical ballet repertoire as well as neoclassical and modern choreographies. She has worked with a wide range of prolific choreographers, including Rudi Van Dantzig,
Frederic Franklin, Mark Morris, Martine van Hammel, James Clouser, Ruth Page, and Ben Stevenson.

From 1984 to 1987 Ms. Lowe served as an Assistant Professor of Ballet at Indiana
University and Director of the Pre-College Ballet Program there. Presently, Ms. Lowe holds the position of Professor at the University of Arizona where she teaches in the School of Dance in the ballet area of the BFA curriculum. One of her current areas of research has led to the evelopment of a movement therapy
program for breast cancer patients and survivors.

In 2002, Ms. Lowe produced her fourth dance instructional video. All four of her videos (in which she is the featured artist), are marketed internationally under the KULTUR label. Her video entitled Creative Movement for Children: A Step
Towards Intelligence, has led to several invitations in Asia, serving as a panelist and conducting workshops for teachers in early movement education in Tokyo and Hong Kong. She has had a long-standing affiliation with the National
Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, where she serves as the master teacher in ballet.

Besides choreographing on a regular basis for the University of Arizona Dance Ensemble, Ms. Lowe has had invitations to perform and present her choreography in Taiwan, the Netherlands and Scotland. She is also frequently invited to
choreograph for Arizona Opera, the state’s professional opera company.

e-mail: mlhancoc@email.arizona.edu
office: 520.621.1387

Ina Gittings Bldg, Room 121