Melissa Pasut

Melissa Pasut is a dancer and choreographer specializing in contemporary dance, with particular focus on contact improvisation among dancers and the inclusion of musicians onstage as ACTIVE participants in the movement. She has lived and worked in Tampa, Rome, and Bologna.

Pasut graduated in Dance from the University of South Florida where she studied with Michael Foley and performed with Moving Current,

In 2005 she moved to Rome, accepting an invitation to join Altroteatro Dance Company.

In 2007 she re-established Anoikis with performances of Transfiguration of a Shattered Mass in Modena, Padova and Ravenna, with Andrew L. Hooker and Pasquale Massaro behind her solo dance .

In 2008 she co-choreographed and performed Shuffle with Teri Weikel. She began teaching contact improvisation at Spaziodanza in Bologna, as well as working with Monica Rimondi.

She also works creatively with John Duncan. Their first collaboration was a soundtrack by Duncan for her untitled solo dance, premiered June 2008 in Rome. In September 2008, they worked together with artist Andrew L. Hooker on her solo dance for camera, An Intuitive Conversation, performed on the rocks at Piombino Beach with cameras on the beach and underwater.