Rebecca Arends is the Founder and Director of RAREdancework, a non-profit organization, dedicated to the production of collaborative & innovative performing arts projects. Her choreography has been presented at Carnegie Hall, The Barnes Foundation, Dixon Place, Constellation-Chicago, The American Musical & Dramatic Academy University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a longstanding member of SAG-AFTRA and continues to work in film and television.
Based in New York City, Ms. Arends danced with the Seán Curran Company for nine seasons, touring domestically and internationally. Chosen to perform and teach throughout Central Asia as cultural ambassadors of the U.S. State Department, the Company toured Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan through DanceMotion USA, produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The following year, SCCo embarked upon a U.S. tour of Travel Songs, a collaborative project with British a cappella, Grammy Award winning vocal ensemble, The King's Singers.
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Rebecca is the director, choreographer and co-creator of The Unwritten Law with Chesney Snow. Broadway World hailed The Unwritten Law as, "political theater at its best" and "65 minutes of the most powerful theater I've ever witnessed."
Rebecca was a dancer in the original cast of Champion (Opera Theatre of St. Louis); libretto by Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael Cristofer, composed by Grammy Award winning and Academy Award nominated jazz musician, Terence Blanchard. She served as Dance Captain during Washington National Opera's production of Champion at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Rebecca danced in the original cast of Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Opera Theatre of St. Louis) libretto by Kasi Lemmons; composed by Terence Blanchard. Additional performance credits include Anybodys in El Paso Opera's West Side Story and interpreter in Tino Sehgal's Kiss exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in NYC.
Additionally, Rebecca danced with Ana Isabel Keilson Company and Rosario—performing in experimental dance venues such as Judson Church, Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, Joe's Pub, P.S. 122, 92nd Street Y and Roulette. She has also been a guest artist with Trainor Dance (The Yard and Jacob's Pillow).
Ms. Arends set Seán Curran repertory on the BFA programs at The Ailey School/Fordham University, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Coker College, Rutgers University-Mason Gross School of the Arts and Darrah Carr Dance. Ms. Arends also assisted Mr. Curran with Nocturnes for Ancestors, a commission for the José Limón Dance Company.
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David Samuel Stern©
Ms. Arends was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Drexel University, teaching Jazz and Modern Dance Performance courses. She was the Assistant Director of the Drexel Dance Ensemble & FreshDance as well as the Resident Contemporary Jazz Instructor for Sparks Dance Company at the University of Pennsylvania. Rebecca has been a guest teaching artist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Princeton University, California Ballet Opera (Palm Desert, CA), Academy of Ballet Arts (Temecula, CA) and A Step Above Dance & Music Academy (Monona, WI). She taught Modern Dance at The School at Peridance at Peridance Capezio Center.
Rebecca is currently on the dance faculty at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City and is the Academic Department Director of the Ballet and Modern Dance Departments.
Rebecca Arends began dancing at Denise Sabala Dance Studios in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She earned a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Afro-American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Powers-Knapp Scholar). Following graduation, Rebecca attended The Ailey School under the direction of Denise Jefferson and was awarded the Oprah Winfrey Foundation Fellowship. She holds a certificate in Diversity & Inclusion from Cornell University.