BIOGRAPHY
Dafna Melamoud, born in Israel and raised in Boston, MA, began her dance training at the age of two.
Starting with ballet at the Boston Ballet School, Dafna fell in love with ballet and started taking her training seriously at a very young age. She studied at the Boston Ballet School until she was 12 years old when she decided to audition for Koltun Ballet Boston, a pre-professional Ballet school based in Watertown, MA. Studying under Alexandra Koltun, a graduate of the Vaganova Ballet School, soloist of the Kirov Ballet, and Boston Ballet principal, and her husband, Alex Lapshin, Bolshoi graduate and Boston Ballet principal, Dafna found herself pouring her life into the art of classical Ballet.
Introducing her to Modern and contemporary dance, was instructor Kristin Wagner, a performer with Kairos Dance Theater. Mixing her love of ballet and modern dance Dafna found herself applying to be a contemporary dance Major at the prestigious Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she currently studies, on her way to earning a B.F.A in Contemporary Dance Performance.
Additionally, Dafna has been rigorously training, competing, and performing in Latin Ballroom dance, with Latin Champion Sergiy Georgiyev, since she was 9 years old.
Dafna currently works as a hostess and server at a restaurant and was an RA at her school, hoping to make students coming into college feel welcome, and doing everything in her power to make her residents have an easy and comfortable transition into college.
Dafna has also been teaching dance, in styles varied from jazz to contemporary, improv, and Latin ballroom at various studios in the Massachusetts area.
Dafna has had the opportunity to perform works by Bill T. Jones (restaged by Gernaul Barnes), Jennifer Archibald, Victor Quijada, Danny Pelzig, Asia Pyron, Raxel Kempenaar, Andrea Gregoride, and Alana Stubbs.
Additionally, she has had the honor of joining Kibbutz Dance Company for their summer intensive, and was accepted into Hubbard Streets intensive for the summer of 2024, along with Complexions Ballet's summer intensive.
Dafnas artistic statement
Dance is an artistic sport
When people say “dance isn’t a sport” It makes me mad. I always think “I’d like to see them try.” I’d like to see people who are considered athletes try to dance and do it well. Not only is it a sport and a difficult one, but what makes it so difficult is the fact that it’s also an art. Not only are dancers pushing themselves to the limit and breaking the boundaries of physical activity and possibility, but they have to look good while doing it. You have to make it look easy. You have to do a complicated jump and also land it perfectly. You have to break your body in half stretching but make it look like it’s nothing. You have to perform. You can’t make a face while you focus, you can’t breathe too hard (unless it’s a choreographic choice).. You can’t make a sound when you land, the audience might hear. You can’t miss a single beat of the music, the audience might notice. Dance is an artistic sport, making it one of the hardest professions that I have the honor to explore.
Versatility is key to anything and everything in dance.
A good dancer is one who can take on multiple forms.
A good dancer is one that can adapt to various styles and movement patterns.
A versatile dancer is a dancer who understands musicality and all of its effects on movement
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A versatile dancer is one that can pick up a style just by watching and repeating.
A versatile dancer doesn’t have to have one specialty, a versatile dancer should be able to excel in multiple styles, always pushing oneself to be better.
A good dancer attracts attention by putting on a performance.
A good dancer never stops working hard.
A good dancer knows when to take breaks.
A good dancer is a versatile dancer, is a confident dancer, is a performer.
A good dancer is an athletic artist.