Rebekah’s U.S.-based research investigates how individual and collective bodies are entangled with/in global power relations. Her work draws on sources and methods in critical dance, cultural, and performance studies in dialogue with scholarly inquiry in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Increasingly she queries the significance of dance and choreographic practices occurring outside of traditional theatrical settings including in museums, festivals, parades, and, most recently, in places and archives no one thinks to look for dance.

She comes to UCLA from The University of Iowa, where she taught courses in dance history and theory and served as Chair of the Department of Dance and as a faculty fellow in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office.

In the professional field, she serves as Executive Co-Editor of Dance Research Journal, or DRJ, and Vice Chair of the DRJ Editorial Board, and formerly on the Boards of Directors of the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD), the Dance Studies Association (DSA), and the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS). She is a coach for the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD).

Rebekah holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University in American Studies, a Certificate of Movement Analysis (C.M.A.) from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York City, and a B.A. from Barnard College/Columbia University with Honors in English and a minor in Dance.