Melissa Cesarano
Artistic Director
With over twenty years of teaching and choreographing in the valley, Melissa created Gravity Jazz Dance Theatre in 2003. She was the Owner and Artistic Director of Studio One Performing Arts Center, in Phoenix for ten years. Her performing company were national competition title holders and she has received national recognition for her creative choreography. In 1992 she opened her own production company, Sophistakit Productions, which worked the industrial and nightclub circuit in Arizona. She has produced many dance theater shows including "Strange Things Happen In The Woods," "The Curse of the Purple Tutu," and "Gilligan’s Island." She has choreographed over twenty musicals in all and in 2003, Melissa received an AriZoni Award for Best Choreography in a non-contracted musical for Mesa Community College's production of "Lucky Stiff." Melissa holds a Bachelors Degree in Secondary Education and is working on her Masters in Talented and Gifted Education. She currently teaches at DancEnergy Performing Arts and Primavera High School.
