production photo from winterWORKS 2020. Photo: Manuel Rotenberg.
Melissa Cisneros
Master of Fine Arts, Dance
Melissa Cisneros is currently an MFA student in Dance-Making and Performance in the Department of Theater & Dance at UC San Diego. Melissa studied Dance-Making at the School for New Dance Development (2001-2004) and Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (2005-2007) in Amsterdam, NL. Since then, she works as an independent artist developing and promoting creative projects related to the research, creation, production and dissemination of contemporary performing arts in Mexico and abroad. Her work is constituted by a permanent coming and going between artistic practice and theory, a transit that takes place in the field of the body. In 2010 she established La Mecedora, a nomadic initiative that cherishes new ideas within body related art emerging in creative processes. La Mecedora is a trans-disciplinary platform that counters economical discourses in art that focus on efficiency, time-pressure and final end products. Instead, it illuminates the rich and insightful path leading towards the eventual performance, dance or art piece whilst reflecting on how perceptions are conditioned by socio-economical factors.