Melissa Sandvig was born and raised in Orange County California. She began her ballet training at Long Beach Ballet at the age of 5 and began dancing professionally at age 15. Melissa was also a young actress and starred in commercials and after school specials, but soon chose to put that on the backburner to fully commit to her future as a ballerina. While still in high school, she won 2nd place in the prestigiousMusic Center Spotlight Awards and toured internationally with the Los Angeles Classical Ballet to Taiwan and China. After graduating she was recruited to join The Milwaukee Ballet where she danced soloist roleswith them for 6 seasons. Melissa then returned home to Los Angeles to become a freelance artist and a certified Pilates instructor. Her interest in Pilates came after suffering a fracture in her lower back which caused her to retrain her body and posture to protect her back from future injuries. She enjoys teaching younger dancers how not only to be healthy but to work their bodies correctly to prevent injuries. She was recently certified in Progressive Ballet Technique as well.

Melissa continues to perform with companies such as Helios Dance Theater, Sacramento Ballet, Los Angeles Contemporary Ballet, Luminario Ballet, Motion Tribe, Body Traffic, Strange and Elegant Dancers, String Theory, The Los Angeles Opera, and many more. She is most well known for her performance on Season 5 of "So You Think You Can Dance" as the "Naughty Ballerina".  Melissa was the first classically trained ballerina and the oldest contestant at age 29. She broke stereotypes about age and ballet and made it all the way to the top 6.