Melinda Ring, choreographer, born in 1960 in Los Angeles, CA, has lived and worked in New York since 2001. She is dedicated to process and experimentation as a story in itself. One that embraces multiple possible outcomes — which might include uncertainty, humor, chaos and even formal beauty — research meant to be shared. Towards this end she founded Special Projects in 2004 to support the production of her choreographic, performance and installation work. Ring is a 2016 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artist awardee, a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2019 NYFA Fellow, and a 2019 Movement Research Resident Artist supported by the Rosin Fund. Her most recent works have been commissioned and supported by The Kitchen, The Box Los Angeles, The Chocolate Factory, Yaddo, Whitman College, Annenberg Foundation (Metabolic Studio), Danspace Project, Movement Research (AIR), Bennington College, MoMA, Performance Works NW, and Gibney Dance Center (DiP). As a performer she has worked for artist Paul McCarthy on numerous projects, beginning in 1997 with “Santa Chocolate Shop”. She began her career as a member of the Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble (1981-1984). Studies in the late 80’s with Min Tanaka in Japan catalyzed her choreographic process. Formal Education: B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, 1982 and M.F.A., Bennington College, 2001. She was a critic in sculpture at Yale School of Art from 2014-2019.
