Melissa Renner

Teaches: Basics Salsa

Melissa Renner is Founder of Active For Life, the creator of Active For Life's proprietary TAP TIME™, SEATED RHYTHM™, and Brain & Body programs, and the inventor of the patent pending tap shoe covers and hand tap covers (with four total patents pending). She has been working in the fitness industry for over a decade and decided to create Active For Life in order to ensure dance and exercise prescriptions are also provided for populations that tend to be neglected. This ensures that both the general population and special populations equally receive the health, wellness, fitness and dance they need to live life to the fullest. Active For Life works largely with individuals with neurodegenerative diseases, cognitive or physical impairments, and older adults. Melissa personally started Active For Life from the ground up with one facility. It is now servicing over 40 facilities within 7 counties in Northeast Ohio and has also expanded into several facilities nationally. Melissa and her programs were featured in the August issue of Brain and Life magazine through the American Academy of Neurology, as well as many local publications and news outlets.

Melissa's background consists of working with an array of different populations. Melissa studied fitness methods in Zurich, Switzerland and Essen, Germany, as well as completed her Masters in International Public Health from the University of Liverpool; whilst her previous undergraduate studies were in fitness management and exercise science. Melissa was the T-BOW® Master Trainer for the United States and designed T-BOW® exercise programs for HopSports; the latter which was mentioned during one of Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign speeches and part of the NFL Play60. Melissa has been a presenter at national fitness conventions and has had several published articles in fitness magazines, such as LiveStrong.

Melissa is a competitive salsa dancer on two separate teams: Ladies Shines team (Azucar) and Partner Team (Saoco de Mambo). She placed 3rd at the World Salsa Summit in Miami 2023 in the Ladies Small Shines Team. Both of her teams perform and compete nationally.