Melinda Songer Soderling

Melinda Songer Soderling was born in New Orleans and raised in Jasper, Alabama, where she began her dance education at age 4. While still in high school, she attended both Alabama School of the Arts and Birmingham Southern College, as well as teaching performance group classes and private lessons at Birmingham Dance Theatre. During the summers, she traveled extensively as an assistant on 'Dance Olympus' conventions across the country in addition to being a scholarship student at Tremaine in Los Angeles and Broadway Dance Center in New York. Melinda has won numerous awards for both dance and choreography. She has been a guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center Tokyo as well as Backstage Dance Studio Las Vegas. Upon the recommendation of several mentors, Melinda made the decision to become a professional dancer after graduating from high school. For many years, she performed all over the world living out of her suitcase in more than 30 countries. She has danced in a variety of situations from Radio City Music Hall to the Copa Room as well as touring with Latin superstar Chayanne. She assisted Alex Magno in creating a show for the prestigious JFoxx Tokyo and stayed on as director and lead dancer for almost a year. During her dance career she worked with Marguerite Pomerhn Derricks, Jerry Evans, Toni Basil, Peggy Holmes, Michael Darrin, Michele Assaf and many others. In 1994 Melinda returned to Los Angeles begin an acting career in addition to dance. As an actress she has performed in numerous plays including 'Speed the Plow' 'Crimes of the Heart' and 'Miss Firecracker' to name a few. As a dancer her favorite jobs would include What Women Want (2000), Man on the Moon (1999) and Showgirls (1995). As an actress she has over 20 film and television projects to her credit staring opposite the likes of Brian Dennehy, Jason Priestley, Goldie Hawn, Garry Shandling, Pamela Anderson and Warren Beatty. In 1999, Melinda married cinematographer Kurt E. Soderling and the following year they welcomed daughter Logan Laurelle. After becoming a mother, Melinda decided to focus her talent and artistic pursuits to more behind the scenes ventures and went on to produce many industrial shows, several television pilots as well as 'Distinctive Living Television' where she was also the Co-Host from 2003-06. In 2004, Melinda was a producer on the award-winning film Class of 83 (2004) and in that same year gave birth to their son Luca Emond. She most recently worked as a consulting producer for 'Painless Productions' in their reality television department. She co-produced the "Aviation expo 2002" with their production company "Soderling Productions" as well as several pilots for television. In 2004 their documentary "Class of '83" went on to win juror and audience awards at International Film Festivals. She also worked as consulting producer for a Dance Show for "Painless Productions" in the reality television development.