Rebecca Pappas

My choreographic practice is supported by scholarly inquiry which addresses memory effects and manifestations of the collective. My writing has been featured in a variety of popular and scholarly publications and I am co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance (2021).

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PUBLICATIONS

 

• "Performing Hartford: A Community turns its head," in Futures of Performance: The Responsibilities of Performing Arts in Higher Education. Routledge, 2023. 

• Co-Editor,  The Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance. With Naomi Jackson and Toni Shapiro-Phim, Oxford University Press, 2021.

• "Mending Time: A Movement Score," in The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice, University of California Press, 2021.

• “Always Already, The Jewish Body as Victim and Victimizer,” in The Body, The Dance and The Text: Essays on Performance and the Margins of History. Ed: Brynn  Shiovitz. McFarland Books. Jefferson, NC. 2019.

• “What Could Be Riskier than Utopia,” in Itch #15 – ow-ow-ow-howl. Over the edge?. Showbox LA, Los Angeles, CA. 2013.

 

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

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• “This Dance Wrecked Me,”

  • Practice as Research Hub Participant. Interdeterminate States: Bodies, Fields, Praxis, Dance Studies Association, Washington, DC - 2025

• "Performing Hartford: A Community turns its head,"

  • Dance Studies Association, Vancouver, British Columbia - 2022.​

• “Generation Sweat: Revving the Engine of Commerce with Ryan Heffington.” Author, Rebecca Pappas

  • Galvanizing Dance Studies, New Brunswick, NJ – 2021

  • 2021 Cultural Studies Association Conference [virtual]

  • Tactical Bodies: The Choreography of Non-Dancing Subjects. Los Angeles, CA 

• "Folkdance Mixtape: An Interactive Artists Talk"

  • Conney Conference on Jewish Arts. 92nd Street Y. New York, NY - 2019.​

• “Dance History as Practice.”

  • Cultivating Equity and Access: Dance Education for All. National Dance Education Organization Annual Conference. San Antonio, TX – 2017.

• “Always Already, The Jewish Body as Victim and Victimizer.”

  • (Featured in Melton Center Jewish Dance Panel) Transmissions and Traces: Rendering Dance. CORD + SDHS Joint Conference. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH – 2017.

• “Rounding the Monument: Parading in Circle City.” Author, Rebecca Pappas.

  • (Featured in Debut Panel) Beyond Authenticity and Appropriation: Bodies, Authorship and Choreographies of Transmission. CORD + SDHS Joint Conference. Pomona College, Claremont, CA - 2016.

  • Moving Interactions: Dancing through In-Between Spaces. World Dance Alliance Americas. UDLAP, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico - 2016

  • Intersections. Network of Ensemble Theaters Conference. Chicago, IL - 2016

•  “The Show Must Go On: A participatory rewriting of Euro-American Folk Dance.” Author, Rebecca Pappas.

  • Writing Dancing/Dancing Writing. SDHS + CORD Joint Conference. Iowa City, IA – 2014

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PANELS

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• Presenter at Choreographic Lab, Conney Conference on Jewish Arts - Madison, WI – 2022, 2017, 2015, 2013

• Moderator, Jewish Female Choreographers and Social Justice. Jews and Jewishness in the Dance World. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ – 2018

• Panelist, Social Practice Panel, Indiana Arts Commission: Homecoming. Indianapolis, IN - 2017

• Panelist, Sustainable Developments: The Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Dance. 2017 Dance/USA Conference. Saint Louis, MO - 2017

• Panelist, Performing Aspen, discussed Merce Cunningham’s contribution to Aspen Magazine on artist-run KCHUNG Radio. Los Angeles, CA - 2014

• Panelist, EARFUL OF DANCE, discussed Jerome Bel’s work Pichet Klunchen & Myself, Los Angeles, CA - January 2009

 

SELECTED PRESS

 

• Slayton, Jeff. “Ever Heard of Dance Wrecking?” LA Dance Chronicle, Jan 15, 2024.

• Morgan, Ilana, “Critical Hope, Ethics, and the Future of Performing Arts in Higher Ed, Dance Chronicle, June 23, 2025.

• Wendy Perron, “Jewish Dance Scholarship has Arrived.”  WendyPerron.com. August 10, 2022.

• Naima Prevots, “The Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance,” Journal of Dance Education, March 2022. 

• Robin Prichard, “The Body, The Dance, and the Text: Essays on Performance and the Margins of History.” Journal of Dance Education, Aug 19, 2019. 

• Rebecca Rossen. "Jews on View: Spectacle, Degradation, and Jewish Corporeality in Contemporary Dance and Performance." Theatre Journal 64.1 (2012): 59-78. 

• Sara Wolf. At Home in the World? Mobilizing Inbetweenness in ‘Choreographing Identities’. Theatre Research International, 35, (2010).  pp 172-177.

• Sara Wolf. “Moments of Intrigue and Wit to Savor” Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2008.