Rachel DeForrest Repinz, MFA is a visually disabled dancer, choreographer, scholar, teaching artist, and writer based in Philadelphia and NYC. She received a BA and MFA in Dance from SUNY Buffalo State University and Temple University, respectively. Rachel is currently a second-year doctoral student in Dance at Texas Woman’s University with a focus on the Disability Aesthetic and its applications in choreographic practices in Contemporary dance. Currently, Rachel is working as the Assistant to the Director of the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at CUNY Hunter College, as a Dance Expert for a new research project led by Meta, and as a Staff Writer for thINKingDANCE. Rachel also founded and artistically directs RACHEL:dancers, a multi-medium, multi-modal, dance performance company, as well as co-directs a collaborative performance art project, Bashi Arts, with Enya-Kalia Jordan. Rachel has presented her work nationally and internationally, at venues including the Off-Broadway Kraine Theater, Movement Research, the biennial Decolonizing Bodies: Engaging Performance conference at UWI Barbados, the 2018, 2019, and 2022 NDEO conferences held in San Diego, Miami, and Atlanta respectively, DaCi’s 2020 special performance series and 2023 National Gathering, the Institute of Dance Artistry, Mark Degarmo’s NYC Salon Series, Philadelphia Youth Dance Festival, and more. She has had the honor of working with esteemed choreographers including Sidra Bell, Abdur-Rahim Jackson, Wayne St. David, Dr. S. Ama Wray, Meriàn Soto, Awilda Sterling-Duprey, Carlos R.A. Jones, and as a principal dancer for Enya Kalia Creations, among others. She has been commissioned to create works for the UN’s World Water Day, the Utah All-State Dance Ensemble, Manhattan High School of the Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State at Abington, the Buffalo State Dance Theater Company, Lawrence Public Schools, and more. Learn more.