Biography

Steven Melendez was born in New York City in 1986 and started his ballet training as part of the LIFT Scholarship Program at Ballet School New York at the age of 7. Later, he studied at the School of American Ballet and attended summer intensive programs with the San Francisco Ballet Academy, Houston Ballet Academy and Kaatsbaan International School.

In 2001 Steven joined New York Theatre Ballet 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 Steven was invited to Buenos Aires as a Guest Soloist to perform with Ballet Concierto, directed by Inaki Urlezaga. His repertory there included Carmen (Alonso), Don Quixote (Baryshnikov), Symphonic Variations (Ashton) and Borodin (Ariaz). While performing with Ballet Concierto Steven traveled extensively performing in international ballet galas and festivals in Argentina, New Zealand, Thailand, Venezuela, Ecuador, Estonia, Spain and Italy.

In 2007 Steven joined the Vanemuine Theater Ballet Company in Tartu, Estonia, as a Principal dancer. With the Vanemuine Theater he has 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 2010 Steven rejoined New York Theatre Ballet and is joining them for their 2011 national tour of The Alice in Wonderland Follies as well as their Signatures 11 series in New York City.

Steven received a Diploma from the 5th Rudolf Nureyev International Ballet Competition in Budapest, Hungary, in 2008. 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. In 2009 he performed in the Johvi International Ballet Gala for Agnes Oaks’ farewell tour. Steven is a protégé of international ballet master David Howard.