Melissa Ajayi is a performer, choreographer, and educator
currently based in Cleveland. She has worked as an independent artist since
2009, dancing in work by multiple companies/artists in New York City;
Lexington, KY; and Cleveland,OH including Kimberly Bartosik/Daela, Antaeus
Dance, Travesty Dance Group, Marquez Dance Project, Emily Jeffries, Sarah
Holmes-Villanueva, Elizabeth Pollert, Leanne Schmidt and Company and Blackbird
Dance Theatre.

Since founding Ajayi Dance in 2021, Melissa has created more
than a dozen original works including 3 self-produced site-specific immersive
experiences as well as a commissioned work with No Exit New Music Ensemble.
Additional works have been presented at Playhouse Square, CPT’s Danceworks,
Blackbird Dance Theatre, Tridea Dance, Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, CDP
Company Community Collab, Borderlight Festival, Ingenuity Fest, Pandemonium,
and MicroTheater CLE.

With a dedication to process and collaboration, Melissa
facilitates inFORMal Fridays, an opportunity for dance artists to experiment
and focus on process in a shared community space. In addition to maintaining a
free community calendar of classes and events in the Cleveland area, she
teaches a weekly contemporary class, organizes a weekly community class led by
a rotation of local artists and has been a guest instructor/guest artist at
many area institutions including Cleveland State University, Cleveland School
of the Arts, Dancing Wheels, The Movement Project, and Bard High School Early
College.

As a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist for over a
decade, Melissa worked in a variety of settings utilizing dance as an
intervention to bring about physical, cognitive, social, emotional and
behavioral change. Her writing has been published in the National Therapeutic
Recreation Journal, and she has presented at the National Dance Education
Organization Conference and multiple therapeutic recreation conferences. While
she no longer works in a clinical setting, she draws on this experience to consider
the impact and outcome of her educational and choreographic work on an
individual, collective, and societal level and strives to create a teaching
environment that encourages every individual to find joy in movement and
personal expression.

Melissa is a recipient of the 2023 Ohio Arts Council Artist
Opportunity Award and a 2024 recipient of the Cleveland Public Theatre
Individual Artist Fund Award.