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Updated 4/22/2022

Rebecca Pappas

  • C

    CT

Institution/Business Type: Artist / Creative (Individual)

I make projects that address the body as an archive for personal and social memory. My choreography has toured nationally and internationally and I have received residencies from Yaddo and Djerassi, and funding from the Indiana Arts Commission, the Mellon Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, The Clorox Foundation, and Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME). Between 2001-2014 I made dance projects in California where I have been presented at ODC, REDCAT, and Highways Performance Space. From 2014-18 I served as an Assistant Professor of Dance at Ball State University where I created community based dance and social practice projects in Indianapolis, IN. In 2018 I relocated to Hartford, CT to become an Assistant Professor of Dance at Trinity College where I focus on Dance and Community. I continue to serve as a Guest Artist in the Masters in Social Practice Art at University of Indianapolis.

I am a choreographer who uses modern and postmodern dance as tools to understand the corporeal impact of history. I have an abiding interest in the past, and an engagement with our bodies as archives for personal and social memories. In dances this may manifest as historical reenactment, narrative rupture, listmaking, or scripted collage. My choreographic projects are interdisciplinary and I often work in collaboration with filmmakers, visual artists, poets, and scientists.

I am committed to the exacting, physical labor of movement discovery and each piece has a distinct  vocabulary drawn from its animating questions. Specificity of gesture is a powerful engine behind the projects that I make and I believe even the smallest energetic shift can change an experience completely. My projects range from highly designed stage compositions to participatory containers that invite indeterminacy and messiness. Recently I have focused on creating public events and encounters that explore community through movement.

Creating choreography is like hiking in the dark – I have faith that we will get there but along the way there might be stumbles, long detours and even forays into beautiful spots that will be evident only in their psychic trace. What excites me about dance is its ability to hold all these diversions in tension. My dances are characterized by their contradictions - I am dedicated to performances that are as messy and surprising and beautiful and complicated as the people who created them and the world in which they live.

Find Me

Rebecca Pappas (She/Her)
Job Title: Choreographer
Phone: 510-599-2325
Address:
135 Tremont St.
Hartford, CT 06105

Additional Content:

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Artist / Creative (Individual)

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Year Founded:

2002

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Artist / Creative (Individual)

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Year Founded:

2002

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Dance - Modern / Contemporary

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Arts Criticism / Journalism
  • Arts for Social Change / Creative Activism
  • Creation of a Work of Art (Including Commissions)
  • Public Art Projects (In Free, Public Spaces)
  • Arts Instruction / Lessons
  • Curriculum Development
  • Residency - In School
  • Workshops / Demonstrations / Master Class
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Residency - Community
  • Community Arts
Seasons Active: summer, spring, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 5

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • General Public
  • Adults
  • School Groups

Languages Available:

  • English

Geographic Reach:

  • National
  • Multi-State Region
  • State

Media Gallery

I Have Worked With

Affiliations and Accomplishments

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Trinity College

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Trinity College

Awards

Awards:

  • CT Office of the Arts Fellow
  • Mellon Grant
  • Zellerbach Family Fund
  • Clorox Community Foundation
  • CHIME Recipient
  • Indiana Arts Commission

Education

Education:

  • Connecticut College
  • UCLA

Special Designations

Special Designations:

  • NEFA Grant Recipient

Designated Arts Community:

  • Connecticut Service Region Member - Greater Hartford Arts Council Service Region

Artist Info

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • Adults
  • College-age
  • High School-age
  • Middle School-age
  • Elementary School-age
  • Seniors

Subject Areas:

  • Dance

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • Adults
  • College-age
  • High School-age
  • Middle School-age
  • Elementary School-age
  • Seniors

Subject Areas:

  • Dance

Touring Artist

Technical Requirements:

  • Studio Theater
  • Or Outdoor Space
  • Or Gallery Space

Fee Range:

$3,000 - $10,000

State of Residence:

Connecticut

Minimum Number of Performers:

2

Maximum Number of Performers:

4