BIO: REBECCA RICE

Rice's choreography contributes a unique blend of modernism and musicality.  Her work focuses on creating new movement ideas that blends the elegant design-oriented, musical style of ballet with the creative, innovative elements and energy of 21st C. modern dance.  Her affiliation with sophisticated new classical music compliments her original, creative style, as well as the loyalty of her classical training in both early Denishawn and Limon/Evans technique. Her recent collaborations with Pulitzer Prize winning composer, John Harbison, cellist Emmanuel Feldman and Burberry designer/photographer Martin Cooper have all distinguished her work as being one of the few fresh and original voices blending modern contemporary dance and ballet today.

Rebecca spent her early years as a student of classical ballet and Denishawn Dance, training in Massachusetts with her grandmother, Marion Rice, who studied in the early 1900's in Boston and performed with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Her focus gravitated to contemporary modern dance, working with Bill Evans, Utah Repertory Dance Theater and Mark Morris, as well as the Limon School and Viola Farber in New York City.  She performed for 30 years with “Marion Rice Denishawn” as well as in NYC and elsewhere with independent companies and artists, including Gerri Houlihan, Stephen Pelton, Bill Evans and Marianne Goldberg.  Her role as a teacher in Boston includes being on the faculty of the Boston Ballet for 17 years where she taught modern dance and choreography to luminaries such as Sarah Lamb (Royal Ballet) and Nao Kuzusaki (Houston Ballet) as well as to students at MIT, Dana Hall and the Winsor School. 

Rebecca created numerous works on Boston Ballet II, her company, Rebecca Rice Dance, and organized Boston Ballet Company's first choreography workshops and performances. She performed her own dance work in France and throughout the United States, including being presented recently by the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Boston's Bank of America Celebrity Series, and the NYC American Dance Guild. Her performances received the Best of Boston awards from both the Boston Herald and the Boston Phoenix in 2003. Tedd Bale of the Boston Herald says Rebecca's work is "extraordinary…inventive…stunning."