NYC based choreographer, dancer, and teacher graduated from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance. Melnick is a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow, the recipient of the Jerome Robbins New Essential Works Grant (2010-2011), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2011 Grants to Artists Award, and has been honored with two Bessie awards (2001 and 2008). 

Melnick's work was most recently presented (fall 2012) at City Center in NYC, March 2012. Solo, Deluxe Version, and her solo made in collaboration with Trisha Brown, One of Sixty Five Thousand Gestures was presented at New York Live Arts (NYLA). Additional works, both nationally and internationally, have been peformed at The Kitchen (Fanfare, with set décor by Burt Barr), Dance Theater Workshop, La Mama, commissioned for OtherShore Dance Company, Jacob's Pillow, The American Dance Festival, Barnard College, Bennington College, Dance Box, Kansai, Japan, and at the Irish Museum of Modern Art for the Dublin Dance Festival in Dublin, Ireland.

Melnick has worked with a vast array of dance artists such as Twyla Tharp and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and continues to perform with choreographers Sara Rudner, Vicky Shick, Jon Kinzel, John Jasperse, Liz Roche, and Susan Rethorst. Melnick currently teaches at Barnard College, NYU (in the Experimental Theater Wing), and Trevor Day School