Rachel Repinz, teaching artist

Rachel DeForrest Repinz, MFA is a dancer, choreographer, scholar, teaching artist, and multiple award recipient based in Philadelphia and New York. She received a BA and MFA in Dance from SUNY Buffalo State College and Temple University, respectively. Rachel has presented her work nationally and internationally, at venues including Movement Research, the biennial Decolonizing Bodies: Engaging Performance conference at UWI Barbados, the 2019 NDEO conference held in Miami, the 2018 NDEO conference held in San Diego, DaCi’s 2020 special performance series, the Institute of Dance Artistry, Mark Degarmo’s NYC Salon Series, Philadelphia Youth Dance Festival, and more. She has had the honor of performing premiere works by Dr. S. Ama Wray using Embodiology techniques, Meriàn Soto, Awilda Sterling-Duprey, Megan Bridge of "Fidget", Carlos R.A. Jones, and as a principal dancer for Enya Kalia Creations, among others. She has been commissioned to create works for the UN’s World Water Day, the Utah All-State Dance Ensemble, Manhattan High School of the Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State at Abington, the Buffalo State Dance Theater Company, Lawrence Public Schools, and more. Currently, Rachel is working as the Assistant to the Director of the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at CUNY Hunter College, as a teaching artist for Dancewave and Notes in Motion, and as a dancer with Open Dance Ensemble, an experimental improvisation dance company. Rachel also founded and artistically directs RACHEL:dancers, a multi-medium, multi-modal, dance performance company. Rachel is currently a doctoral candidate in Dance Studies at Texas Woman’s University with a focus on the disability aesthetic and choreographic practices in Contemporary dance.