Named one of Dance Magazine’s “30 over 30,” Melanie George is the founder and director of Jazz Is… Dance Project and associate curator and director of artist initiatives at Jacob’s Pillow. As a dramaturg, she has contributed to projects by Raja Feather Kelly, Helen Simoneau, Susan Marshall, Alice Sheppard, Machine Dazzle, Urban Bush Women, and SW!NG OUT, among others. George is featured in the documentary UpRooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance, and founded the global advocacy website jazzdancedirect.com. Publications include chapters in Working Together in Qualitative Research, Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches, and Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century. She is the former dance program director at American University, and has guest lectured at Harvard University, the Yale School of Drama, and The Juilliard School. George is the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Leadership Award from the National Dance Education Organization. She is currently touring as a performer in LaTasha Barnes Presents The Jazz Continuum.