Melissa Cristina is one of Melbourne's best known belly dance artists and Latin dancers. Melissa started learning and performing Middle Eastern dance at the age of 10 and began her professional dance career at the age of 17. She has taught dance in Melbourne and around Australia for over 10 years, and has recently returned from her fourth study trip to Egypt after completing a teacher training course in Cairo specifically for Middle Eastern dance.

Melissa is the proprietor of the Hip To Hip Middle Eastern Dance Studio and specialises in training dancers to become professional. Her knowledge of belly dance and Latin dance encompasses all styles of folkloric and modern under every umbrella, although she is well known for her classical oriental, her passion for Sharbi, and her favourite style of Latin dance is Samba. Melissa started her Latin dance career with Fabio Robles in his Latin dance extravaganza Ole Ola. She then became the co-founder of Katumba Latin Dance Entertainment, and now has her own Latin Dance troupe called Brazilian Burlesque. She has recently commenced a new dance agency business called Dancesista.com.

Melissa was also a troupe member of The Gypsy Hips and Chigana Belly Dance. She now has the largest working belly dance troupe in Melbourne, called The Hip To Hip Dancers, and is a regular workshop presenter at the Sydney and Melbourne Belly Dance Festivals. Melissa is also involved with Victorian Arabic Social Services (VASS) as a teacher/choreographer on a project named ARAB (Anti Racism Action Band) which educates teenagers on multi-cultural music and dance.