Melissa Williams-BIO

Melissa Williams is one of the most innovative Choreographer/Directors working in the entertainment industry today. Recognized for her versatility, musicality and keen eye for the stage, Melissa is also known for her sexy, edgy, athletic, ‘rock-n-roll meets theater’ choreography.

Seasoned in creating and staging dance sequences, Melissa has worked with some of the most established artists, actors and directors in the industry including Prince, George Michael, Bryan Adams, Michael Caine, Randy Quaid, Catherine McCormack, Carmen Electra, David LaChapelle, McG, Paul Verhoven and Joseph Kahn. Over the past two years Melissa Williams and her company DM Creative have choreographed and musically staged live productions around the world including Grease-the musical, HAIR-the musical, Generations, Piano Man and Undercover.

It began in 1993 when Melissa embarked on a four-year experience with “Mr. Purple Rain” himself, Prince. Hired by award-winning choreographer/director Jamie King to dance in Prince’s late night cabaret ‘Erotic City’ at his nightclub Glam Slam, Melissa ‘aka Shockadelica’ quickly proved herself as a dynamic performer and caught the eye of some of the biggest choreographers in the business as well as Prince himself. This led to performing with Prince on several awards shows and appearances including his tribute performance on The American Music Awards. Simultaneously Melissa had landed her first feature film, Showgirls, and was requested by Paul Verhoven to read for a role. The rest was history, at the age of twenty-one, Melissa played the bitter marble-tossing character “Julie” in one of the most controversial, cult films of all time. Nothing could compare to the education she received while in Prince’s company though, and Melissa was expanding into the world of choreography.

In 1997 Prince and Mayte called upon Melissa to choreograph the three-act dance concert featuring the music of Prince and the NPG, ‘Around The World In A Day’. After spending months at Paisley Park studios choreographing, rehearsing and helping to develop the New Power Generation Dance Company, Melissa found her love for live theater. Soon after NPG’s US tour Melissa was hired by a European producer to direct and choreograph California Dream Men. Not your typical male revue, this multi-faceted production blended the fiercest male dancers LA had to offer, eight of the sexiest exotic male dancers from all over the country, grand scenery and elaborate production. California Dream Men was the first male revue to perform at Les Folies Bergere in Paris where it premiered and went on to become a huge success in France, Germany and Italy. After the success of CDM’s tour Melissa was commissioned to choreograph and musically stage Grease-the musical and Hair-the musical by the same producer. Both are still running throughout Europe.

In the United States Melissa was choreographing the sexy dance bumpers for the new television/internet show Farmclub.com, a musically based show featuring the hottest bands in the industry, choreographing Michael Caine, Catherine  McCormack, and Randy Quaid in the movie ‘The Debtors’, and in pre production meetings with Jamie King,Angelo Medina Ent. and Mandalay Bay to choreograph and musically stage an original Latin production for the Las Vegas Strip called ‘Storm’. In 2000 Melissa formed her own production company DM Creative Corp and began to write, direct and choreograph original shows and industrials. That same year Melissa founded Extreme Dance Conventions and Competitions, a workshop tour featuring some of the top working choreographers and teachers in the industry, and started to play the drums. 

Melissa has provided choreography and production for various corporations, including Reebok, Sun Microsystems, Adidas, Bongo Jeans, Serious Clothing, Stratosphere, Windsor Casino and Treasure Island. Keeping her finger on the pulse Melissa continues to push the envelope in every direction of her creativity, and in the future, looks forward to continuing with current projects, as well as further defining her creativity for the Broadway stage, television production, new artists and feature films.