Melissa Almaguer is a multidisciplinary tap artist, improviser and educator born and raised in Mexico now based in Brooklyn, NY. She is currently the bandleader of several improvisation collectives including praesēns, Angel of Air/ Angel of Water and Melissa Almaguer Trio. Besides her projects as a bandleader and soloist she has also collaborated with Moor Mother, Irreversible Entanglements, William Parker, Luke Stewart, Elio Villafranca, JALCO, amongst others. She has appeared in works of today’s major tap exponents including her teacher Derick Grant, Dormeshia, Michela Marino Lerman, Jumaane Taylor and Christina Carminucci.

In her short time in New York City, Melissa has performed in venues like Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, The Joyce Theater, National Sawdust, The Jazz Gallery, Kaufman Music Center, and Jamaica Center of the Arts, to name a few. As an educator, she is currently on faculty at Steps On Broadway and Harlem School of the Arts and continues to hold workshops all around the world.

Photo by Steven Pisano