Menelaine Valencia took her first steps into dancing at the tender age 14 and has since then discovered her undying love and passion for Hip-Hop and the performing arts. She has now become one of Vancouver’s newest and youngest upcoming choreographers and is now ready to take her career on to greater lengths. Within the past 5 years she has trained extensively not only in Hip-Hop but in other disciplines as well, such as Street Jazz, Break Dancing, Contemporary, Musical Theatre and Jazz. Most of her training was taken from only the best at Praise TEAM (Theatre Ensemble and Arts Ministry), Harbour Dance Centre and Pure Dance Studios.

At 16, she began to branch off into choreography for her high school dance team and through the success and exposure of her work there; she had captured the attention of many people within the Vancouver dance scene. Since then, she has had the opportunity to choreograph for the YFC Pacific Regional Dance Team, Holy Cross Regional High School, Praise T.E.A.M and other dance companies across the lower mainland. Now, as a well developed choreographer and performer she was participated in various local, national and international events such as: MaxtOut Chor California, Pacific National Exhibition - Play Land, Wow-Gk, Canadian West-Coast Hip-Hop Championships, Driven to Perform, International Dance Challenge Florida and YFC National Conference Montreal, just to name a few. She has also received a number of awards such as: Monsters of Hip Hop - Scene Interactive Scholarship, Surrey Arts Council Dance Scholarship and the Best Choreography Award from Peak Invitational, among others.

Menelaine is very excited to start off her first year as a teacher here at Dance Trance this Summer 2008. She hopes to continue sharing others with and inspiring others through her talent, knowledge and experiences wherever she may be. Dance and the performing arts has truly become a way of life for her and she is thrilled to have yet another opportunity to learn, experience and create!