About: Melissa Rolnick

Melissa Rolnick: BFA SUNY Purchase, MFA Mills College. New York Studies: Andre Eglevsky, Maggie Black, Valentina Pereyaslavic, Zena Rommett, Merce Cunningham, Mel Wong, Kazuko Hirayabashi, Carol Fried, Aaron Osborne, Louis Falco. San Francisco studies: Aaron Osborne, Margaret Jenkins, Alonzo King. Performed in SF with Joe Goode, Emily Keeler, Elina Mooney, in the companies of San Francisco Moving Company, Cliff Keuter’s New Dance Company and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Other studies: Iyengar Yoga- Judith Lasater, Authentic Movement- Janet Adler, Dani Riggs. In more recent years, Gaga- Batsheva dancers. Dance faculty at Sonoma State, Western WA, Arizona State, Fresno State, Gustavus Adolphus College. In 2015 awarded Lenz Residential Fellowship for Buddhist Studies at Naropa University- began developing MEISA: movement-exploration-imagination, sensation, awareness, a somatic, contemplative practice. Currently Professor Emerita at Gustavus Adolphus College in MN.

Articles by Melissa Rolnick:

• Embodied Knowing: a counter cultural practice May 05, 2026