Melanie Gladstone, Dance Instructor

Melanie Gladstone is a performer/educator/advocate originally from New York. She has been involved with theatre since forever, having grown up with parents in the 'biz'. Her childhood was spent in rehearsal halls, dance studios, and theatres, inspiring her towards a love and true joy with regard to creating and performing art. She began performing on Long Island and in Queens and Manhattan when she was 8 and continued until she left NY in 2009. She spent the 90s summers attending a performing arts camp, USDAN, and followed up by giving back and becoming a dance teacher there, herself. While studying Music Education and Dance in college, Melanie enjoyed 4 years as director for the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County's after school drama program, putting on 1 play each year. Throughout this time she continued her involvement in musical theatre and gymnastics (as an athlete [total 20yrs] and a coach.) Her Master's Degree is in Deaf & Hard of Hearing Education, with a focus on the performing arts. In her early teaching career, she spent 3 years at the South Carolina School for the Deaf & the Blind, serving as music and dance teacher throughout the campus and for all ages, as well as directing/choreographing theatrical performances for students. Her time there also involved preparing students for off campus performances as singers, signers, and dancers. Melanie quickly got herself also involved with the Spartanburg Little Theatre, which produced high-quality community theatre productions. Her proudest memory of work at SCSDB is an all Deaf & Hard of Hearing student performance of "SWING! The Musical". Amidst her time in SC, she took a brief hiatus to travel and do research on dance and disability. Her travels took her to workshops, performances, and various schools for students with various 'special needs' in England, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, St. Vincent & the Grendines (& Bequia Island), Germany, the Netherlands, and California. Visiting these areas gave her a broader perspective on the Integrated Dance scene (artists with and without disabilities performing as a company together) and presented workshops with her own students, as well as out in the community when she returned to SC. When she moved to WA in 2013, her first 'gig' was that of Head Coach for Ingraham HS gymnastics, a school that was looking to restart a program that had long been on hiatus. She coached there for 4 years, each year with gymnasts qualifying to the State Championships. After a lovely 4 years, and a lot of driving up and down i-5, Melanie stayed in the gymnastics game as a judge for HS teams. During this time, she began working for North Thurston Public School District as a Deaf & Hard of Hearing Specialist/Educator and has been there ever since, working primarily with preschoolers thru 5th grade. Also throughout this time in WA she has performed and choreographed for theatres along the Puget Sound such as Tacoma Little Theatre, Tacoma Musical Playhouse, Broadway Olympia, Seattle Musical Theatre, Dukesbay Productions, Auburn Ave Community Theatre, and soon as a director for Lakewood Playhouse (when live theatre returns!). You may have seen her on stage most recently as Val in "A Chorus Line" at TLT, which will return whenever it's safe to do so! As a dance teacher, Melanie enjoys all forms of dance, but particularly gravitates towards tap dance and broadway jazz, as well as being a voracious reader of dance and theatre history. She has taught dance and acrobatics locally for Sound Movement Arts Center and Tacoma Little Theatre. Her career and after-school life collide from time to time when she has served as a liaison for local theatre productions who are working on creating more accessible theatre experiences, onstage and off, for the local deaf and hard of hearing community. She continues to be a fierce advocate for accessibility in that way all around Tacoma and the South Sound. Melanie is very much looking forward to beginning this journey with LPH and meeting more dancers out in the community, as well hopefully inspiring community members' inner dancing-self to let loose!!