Shortly after being named by Opernwelt Magazine "best new choreographer" for her first choreographic work in Germany ("West Side Story", Nationaltheater Mannheim), Melissa advanced to become one of the leading choreographers in the German
and Austrian musical scene. Her work includes the Berlin Theater des Westens world premieres of "30 60 90°", "Let´s Pop", and "Blue Jeans", the European Premiere of Cy Coleman´s "The Life", "West Side Story" in Mannheim, Bonn, Linz, Bad Hersfeld, and Athens, "The Who´s Tommy" in Osnabrück and Dortmund, the new Volkoper Vienna´s "Fiddler On The Roof", a European tour of "Beauty and the Beast", "Chess", "On The Town", "Evita", "Sweeney Todd", the "new" Gershwin musical "Crazy For You", the soccer musical "nullvier", the revue "Hexen" at Friedrichstadtpalast Berlin, the first European production of "Urinetown", the European premiere of Gershwin's "Of Thee I Sing", the world premiere of "Marilyn", the Swiss premiere of "Les Misérables", "White Horse Inn" at State Opera Hannover, the German premiere of Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band", "Grand Hotel", the world premiere of "The Count of Monte Christo", the Austrian premiere of "Miss Saigon", Porter's "Anything Goes", Weill's "Lady in the Dark".
Melissa´s special love is "Chicago". She has been involved with "Chicago" productions since 1998: in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, and Basel as Resident Director and as the Associate Director in Buenos Aires, Moscow, Paris, Milan, Rome, Madrid and Amsterdam. Two new production under her supervision are due to open in Spain and the Netherlands in 2009.
