Melody Xie, the founder and director of the Melody Institute, has been
teaching Chinese Mandarin language and dance in Washington state for
over 13 years. She co-founded and started up the Chinese program at Lakeside School where she taught Chinese Mandarin from 2001
and 2005.Melody recently won the Ethnic Heritage Council's Gorden Ekvall Tracie Award; the first Chinese to do so. A familiar figure to Chinese newspapers' readers, Melody is frequently featured in Chinese language newspapers around the world.
Outside of the Institute, Melody also teaches Beginning and Advanced Chinese at Bellevue Community College, and previously, Cascadia Community College.
As a professional dancer, Melody has been active for more than 30 years as a dancer, choreographer, and instructor. Furthermore, she created and developed the "Rapid Acquisition Method" and the "Graded Choreography Approach." She has taught over a thousand students in the United States and has choreographed over a hundred dances in China and the United States.
Melody hold a Bachelor's degree in international business management and a Masters in Business Administration from Xiamen University in China.
Below: Melody at age 18.
Yan Fan, vice president, helped found the Melody Institute and acts as a teaching
assistant and secretary as well as the principal dancer for the Melody
Dance Group.
Fluent in Chinese Mandarin, Yan received the "Building Bridges" scholarship for high performance on the intermediate HSK (Chinese Fluency) Examination in 2005 as well as third place in a national Chinese essay writing competition in 2006. She has also studied Chinese language abroad at the Beijing Language and Culture University.
Outside of Chinese dance classes, Yan has also received several years of training in classical ballet from the prestigious Pacific Northwest Ballet School.
She currently attends Dartmouth College.
Fluent in Chinese Mandarin, Yan received the "Building Bridges" scholarship for high performance on the intermediate HSK (Chinese Fluency) Examination in 2005 as well as third place in a national Chinese essay writing competition in 2006. She has also studied Chinese language abroad at the Beijing Language and Culture University.
Outside of Chinese dance classes, Yan has also received several years of training in classical ballet from the prestigious Pacific Northwest Ballet School.
She currently attends Dartmouth College.