In 2001 Melendez joined New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB) as an apprentice and in 2006 was promoted to Principal. While there he performed leading roles in choreographies by Fredrick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Butler, Agnes DeMille, Donald Mahler, Antony Tudor, and others. In 2004, while dancing with New York Theatre Ballet, he graduated from the American Ballet Theater Studio Company Associate Program. The program culminated in a performance of Oblivion by Jessica Lang and Continuo by Antony Tudor.

For the 2006 season Melendez was invited to Buenos Aires as a Guest Soloist to perform with Ballet Concierto, directed by Iñaki Urlezaga. His repertory there included Carmen (Alonso), Don Quixote (Baryshnikov), Symphonic Variations (Ashton) and Borodin (Ariaz). While performing with Ballet Concierto, Melendez traveled extensively performing in international ballet galas and festivals in Argentina, New Zealand, Thailand, Venezuela, Ecuador, Estonia, Spain, and Italy.

In 2007 Melendez joined the Vanemuine Theater Ballet Company in Tartu, Estonia as a principal dancer. With the Vanemuine Theater he performed principal roles in Onegin (Medvedjev), The Nutcracker (Isberg), Giselle (Feco) and Peter Pan (Titova), the leading male role in Par Isberg’s Uinuv Kaunitar (Sleeping Beauty) as well as the title role in Ruslan Stepanov’s Kevade were both choreographed on him.

In 2008 Melendez received a Diploma from the 5th Rudolf Nureyev International Ballet Competition in Budapest, Hungary. He also received special recognition from head jurist Maya Plisetskya for his second-round performance of Onegin. Afterwards, he was invited to perform in the gala entitled Celebrating the Classical Male Dancer and later represented Estonia at the 13th International Baltic Ballet Festival in Riga, Latvia.

Melendez returned to New York City in March 2010 for New York Theatre Ballet’s Signature 10 series as a Principal Guest Artist performing José Limon’s Mazurkas and rejoined the company full-time the following season. In 2011 Melendez worked with British choreographer Sir Richard Alston to create his new work A Rugged Flourish and performed Limon’s The Moor’s Pavane for NYTB’s Signatures 12.

Melendez is a Van-Lier Fellowship recipient and was a 2012 Clive Barnes Foundation Award Nominee.

In 2015 Melendez celebrated his 15th season with New York Theatre Ballet performing world premieres in works by Pam Tanowitz and Nicolo Fonte, and U.S. premieres of Alston’s Such Longing and Light Flooding into Darkened Rooms. He was a frequent guest artist at the Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, a Resident Guest Artist at Ballet Palm Beach in Florida, and has performed in galas and festivals in Mexico and Japan.

Melendez co-choreographed his first large-scale work, Song Before Spring, for New York Theatre Ballet which was named a Dance Europe critic’s choice “Best Premiere” of 2016.

In 2018 Melendez received a Declaration of Recognition from the Mayor of Trujillo, Peru with gratitude from the municipality of Trujillo, and a Diploma of Honor from the Governor of La Libertad, Peru for “contributions to culture and arts through dance as an emblem of peace and brotherhood.”

Melendez has served as a faculty member of Ballet School New York, Vanemuine Ballet School in Tartu, Estonia, and the Joffrey Ballet School Summer Program in New York City. He held an annual summer ballet program in Kariya, Japan for over 12 years and travels as a guest teacher internationally.

Melendez serves on the jury of the Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition and since 2018 he has been a member of the alumni advisory committee on diversity and inclusion for School of American Ballet.

From 2019, he was the Hiland Artistic Director for National Dance Institute New Mexico where he created Vastness, a socially distanced dance film for a global pandemic, which aired on New Mexico PBS.

In May 2022, Melendez was named Artistic Director of New York Theatre Ballet, leading the organization through a founder succession after forty-five years. During his tenure, he increased foundation giving by 80%, established the company’s first cash-reserve fund, rebuilt its Board of Directors, and launched a Young Professionals Committee. He commissioned six new ballets and six original musical scores, presented ten distinct programs, and created a community engagement program involving more than forty partner organizations and three thousand participants.

In 2025, he co-founded Troublemaker: Public Works, a community engagement consulting practice through which he develops arts programs and new creative work in partnership with the communities they serve.

He is also the subject of a feature-length, award winning, and Emmy nominated documentary, LIFT, and has been published by CNN and profiled by NPR on Latino USA. He maintains a schedule of public speaking engagements.