Melissa Almaguer

Born in Mexico, Melissa is a New York City based tap dancer, improviser, performer, educator, and overall creator. She started studying tap dance at an early age in Mexico with Jessica Flores and Marcela Treviño. Later, she furthered it by spending time in New York City where she began studying with her mentor Derick K Grant.

Melissa is a Jacob's Pillow alumni. Being her country’s leading tap dancer, she has appeared in works of Dormeshia, Derick Grant, Jason Samuels Smith, Jumaane Taylor and Christina Carminucci. As an improviser, she has collaborated with Moor Mother, Irreversible Entanglements, William Parker and Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra with Paquito D’Rivera, to name a few. In only two years in New York City Melissa has performed in venues like Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, National Sawdust, The Jazz Gallery, Kaufman Music Center, and Jamaica Center of the Arts, to name a few.

Melissa is the band leader of praesēns and Angel of Water/ Angel of Air, improvisation collectives formed with the intention to heal through sound. She is also the producer of Oye Como Va and My Favorite Things, two of the first tap shows in Latin America featuring the best tap artists in Mexico as well as international dancers. As an educator, she currently is on faculty at Steps On Broadway and Harlem School of the Arts. Melissa has taught workshops in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Bogota, Guadalajara, Cancun and Mexico City.