Steven Melendez
Briefly about myself, NYTB’s new Artistic Director
I came to enjoy a long, international career in classical dance as a fluke of luck. I grew up in the South Bronx in the late-1980’s and 90’s in a single parent home. I have a Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean heritage, but beside my appearance, this is not the culture I identify with having experienced as a child growing up, I spent my formative years in the classical ballet eco-system. When I was 7 years old my family was evicted from our home and for all the reasons one might imagine, and many others that are inexplicable, we ended up homeless. After some difficult first few days we moved into a NYC Homeless Shelter for women and children where we stayed for three years. It was in the shelter that I was introduced to New York Theatre Ballet and Project LIFT. In the 30 years since then I have come around, full-circle, to lead NYTB as its new Artistic Director and am now charged with shepherding the organization, professional dance company and ballet academy, that gave me a life that I would never have dreamed possible… MORE
LIFT Documentary (2022)
Filmed over ten years, LIFT shines a spotlight on the invisible story of homelessness in America through the eyes of a group of young homeless and home-insecure ballet dancers in New York City. After performing all over the world, ballet dancer Steven Melendez returns to the Bronx shelter where he grew up to give back to his community, offering a New York Theatre Ballet workshop to children. His traumatic reaction to the shelter from his childhood sends him on an unexpected journey with three kids to reckon with a past he had escaped from through ballet. As young dance students, Victor, Yolanssie and Sharia face the same chasm of home insecurity that long separated Steven from his audience and makes the arts inaccessible to so many kids who share his background. The children he mentors offer him insight into turning a hidden trauma into dance, and together they make an aristocratic art form into an expression all their own.
VASTNESS (2020)
A socially distanced dance film for a global pandemic was created for the children of NDI New Mexico. Shot on location throughout the state and narrated in English, Spanish, and Navajo.
We Are Here (2022)
A tribute to the resilience of NDI New Mexico Hiland Company Dancers, and by extension all young people coming of age in this complex time. Weaving choreography and poetry from the dancers, this multi-media experience is a testament to the healing power that the arts and positive mentorship from caring instructors can provide to young people’s well-being and self-image.