Melissa Toogood was a guest artist with Stephen Petronio Company for performances of UNDERLAND in the fall of 2013 and returned for Petronio’s new creation, Locomotor.
She was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, including the highly acclaimed Legacy Tour, and is a 2013 Merce Cunningham Fellow. Toogood was nominated for an Outstanding Performer New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award in 2013 in both Pam Tanowitz’s The Spectators and Rashaun Mitchell’s Interface. She first joined Pam Tanowitz Dance in 2006, returning in 2012 as Dancer and Rehearsal Director as well as staging her work at Princeton University and assisting her at Dickinson College. Toogood has performed with Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener, Kimberly Bartosik, Robert Wood Dance, Miro Dance Theater, Michael Uthoff Dance Theater, and the Rosie Herrera Dance Theater.
A faculty member at the Merce Cunningham Studio since 2007, she teaches master classes and repertory workshops internationally, including in her native city of Sydney, Australia. She was a guest faculty member at Bard College in 2012 and is on faculty at City Center. Toogood earned a BFA in Dance Performance from New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL. She is currently working on projects with Tanowitz, Mitchell, Bartosik, Sally Silvers, Kyle Abraham, David Parker, Christopher Caines, and Richard Daniels. Dance Magazine has named her as one of its 25 to watch in 2014.