Melissa Rochelle Younker (she/her) is an artist with a multifaceted dedication to dance; directing, choreographing, teaching, learning, performing and designing costumes. Her experimental approach combines her multi-disciplinary experiences to create and collaborate in solo, ensemble, site-specific, video, and live performances.

Originally from Southern California, Melissa received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from California State University, Long Beach in 2014. From 2014-2020, she was a full-time dance artist with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, touring throughout the USA and France as an educator and performer. During that time, she originated roles in works by Adam Barrach, Jonah Bokaer, Ann Carlson, Daniel Charon, Raja Feather Kelley, Stephen Koester, Joanna Kotze, Netta Yerushalmy, and Yin Yue in addition to performing 20+ restaged works including historical repertory by Alwin Nikolais. In 2018, Melissa traveled to Mongolia and South Korea as a cultural ambassador with DanceMotion USA℠, a cross-cultural exchange program of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs administered by BAM ® (Brooklyn Academy of Music).

Melissa is a founding member of Heartland Collective, a multi-disciplinary collective with collaborations in dance, visual arts, music, and performance; directed by Molly Heller. Recently, she collaborated with project-based movement groups And Artists (Utah), Ballet Opera de Guerra (Utah), Brolly Arts (Utah), Keith Johnson/Dancers (California), and Oriantheatre Dance Company (Paris, France) with whom she toured to Croatia. Melissa is Co-Artistic Director of Utah Valley University’s Contemporary Dance Ensemble, where she was honored with the School of the Arts Dean’s Award of Excellence, for Adjunct Faculty. She is a passionate educator, teaching within diverse communities including Dance Church®, Dance Class for Humans, and the University of Utah School of Dance. Her independent projects have been presented in Utah at 12 Minutes Max, 801 Salon, Finch Lane Gallery, Sugar Space Arts Warehouse, and at Midwest RAD Fest in Michigan.

Melissa continues to dive deep into her research as a performing artist and dance maker — studying through workshops and traveling often to enrich her curiosities in the field.