Melissa Pasut

Melissa Pasut is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, and serves as a Professional Tutor in Dance at Liverpool Hope University since 2014. Her academic journey bridges performance practice and critical theory across transnational contexts.

Her educational background:

• MRes Choreography and Performance, University of Roehampton (awarded November 11, 2022)
• BFA Dance Performance, University of South Florida (awarded May 1, 2003)

Her doctoral research interrogates the pointe shoe as a complex cultural artifact within Western classical ballet through the lens of Japanese butoh. This decolonial methodology excavates embodied histories to reframe ballet's symbolic associations, developing radical interdisciplinary practices that challenge Eurocentric dance paradigms. Her work integrates somatic investigation with postcolonial theory to create transformative performance frameworks.

Her notable scientific award:

• Arts and Humanities Research Council Mindlands4Cities Doctoral Studentship

As a Professional Tutor, she mentors dance students at Liverpool Hope University while advancing her AHRC-funded research. Her practice-led methodology bridges academic scholarship and performance creation, positioning the body as an epistemological site for decolonizing dance studies.