Melissa Heywood

Melissa Heywood is a dance artist most regularly working between Edinburgh (where she is based) and Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire (where she grew up).

Melissa trained in London at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she obtained a first class BA(Hons) in Contemporary Dance and in Edinburgh at The MGA Academy of Performing Arts where she was awarded a HND with distinction in Musical Theatre Performance.

Her work On Belay! Climb When Ready was presented at the Bonnie Bird Theatre in London where reviewer Miles Headly described it as a beguiling mountaineering mini-drama. Most of Melissa's creative work focuses on bringing together dance and the great outdoors through storytelling.

Melissa also works alongside Mila Fernandez and Ruby De Ville Morel as one of the co-founders of The Grounding Project. The Grounding Project is an environmentally focused dance collective that shares the stories of our planet and its people. Their film work Exposed by the Elements was chosen to represent Scotland at the U.Dance National Showcase in 2021 and more recently The Grounding Project was awarded the 2022/23 Innovation Award from Trinity Laban to support the development of their next filmic work, The Water Series.