Faculty

REBECCA ARENDS attended The Ailey School (Oprah Winfrey Foundation Fellowship) under the direction of Denise Jefferson. For nine seasons, she toured with the Seán Curran Company; serving as cultural ambassadors of the U.S. State Department, SCCo toured throughout Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan). Additional notable credits include Seán Curran Company & Ustatshakirt Plus (Dream'd In a Dream), Seán Curran Company + The King's Singers (Travel Songs), Anybodys (El Paso Opera's West Side Story), The Kiss (Tino Sehgal, Guggenheim Museum), Trainor Dance and Rosario. She was Dance Captain in Washington National Opera's production of Terence Blanchard's Champion at The Kennedy Center and was in the original cast of both Champion and Mr. Blanchard's opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones which premiered at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Rebecca is the founder of RAREdancework and was an Adjunct Professor and Assistant Director of the Drexel Dance Ensemble at Drexel University (2016-2019) and resident jazz/contemporary instructor for Sparks Dance Company at The University of Pennsylvania. Her choreography has been presented at Carnegie Hall, The Barnes Foundation, Dixon Place, Greenspace, Constellation Chicago, Drexel University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rebecca is the director, choreographer and co-creator of The Unwritten Law which Victoria Ordin of Broadway World hailed, "65 minutes of the most powerful theater I've ever witnessed."

DEGREES:

B.A. in History & B.A. in Afro-American History 

University of Wisconsin-Madison

CERTIFICATE: 

Diversity & Inclusion from Cornell University

Academic Department Director: Ballet & Modern