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Rebecca R. Levy


Choreographer · Performer · Dance Educator
Jacksonville, FL · International work

MFA, California Institute of the Arts
BFA, Cornish College of the Arts

BIOGRAPHY

Rebecca R. Levy is a choreographer, director, performer, and dance educator whose work spans concert dance, dance film, site-specific performance, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, she has built a practice rooted in rigorous physical training, creative risk-taking, and a deep commitment to bringing professional contemporary dance to communities that need it most.

Rebecca currently serves as Professor of Dance and Director of Dance at Florida State College at Jacksonville, where she teaches courses in dance technique, choreography, performance, and dance studies while mentoring emerging artists and contributing to curriculum development, creative scholarship, and community engagement.

Her contributions to arts education have been widely recognized. She received the Outstanding Faculty Award from Florida State College at Jacksonville, was named the Art Educator of the Year by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, and was honored as a 40 Under 40 recipient by the Jacksonville Business Journal.

In 2012, Rebecca co-founded Jacksonville Dance Theatre (JDT), now recognized as the longest-standing professional modern dance company in Jacksonville. Under her leadership, Jacksonville Dance Theatre has received funding and support from Lululemon’s “Here to Be” grant, the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, PNC, the City of Jacksonville & the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, the Florida Department of State Division of Arts and Culture, the GFWC Jacksonville Beaches Woman's Club, VyStar, Florida Blue and many others, helping expand access to high-quality dance education and performance throughout Northeast Florida.

Her choreographic work has been presented at festivals and institutions across the United States and internationally, including the International Dance Festival of New Orleans at Tulane University, the Amelia Island Dance Festival, the Los Angeles Dance Festival, Performatica in Puebla, Mexico, Dance Gallery Festival at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City and Sam Houston State University, the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, among many others.

Her work blends physical rigor with theatricality and a fearless sense of risk, inviting performers and audiences to engage with the forces that connect and divide us. Levy creates pieces that blur the boundaries between movement, narrative and spectacle, exploring the expressive potential of the body in motion.

TEDxFSCJ — "Engaging a Movement" with Rebecca Levy

Grants & Residencies

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Rebecca serves as Director & Professor of Dance at FSCJ — leading both the academic dance program and a performing repertory company that creates and presents original choreographic work each season.

  • Professor of Dance

  • Director of Dance

  • Outstanding Faculty Award

  • Designed Florida's first college-level aerial dance program

  • 2024–2025 Faculty Research Sabbatical

FSCJ danceWORKS

The FSCJ dance repertory company performs original and commissioned works each semester — giving students professional performance experience while expanding the choreographic voice of the program.

Awards & Recognition

  • Art Educator of the Year, 2020

    - Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville

  • Art Ventures Grant, 2020 · Disorder

    - Community Foundation of Northeast Florida

  • 40 Under 40, 2019

    - Jacksonville Business Journal

  • Individual Artist Grant, 2019

    - Community First Bank

  • TEDx Presenter — "Engaging a Movement", 2017

    - TEDxFSCJ

  • Outstanding Faculty Award, 2016

    —Florida State College at Jacksonville

Sabbatical Research — Aerial Dance & Vertical Movement

During her 2024–25 sabbatical, Rebecca undertook an intensive year of research into aerial dance and vertical movement, training at nationally and internationally recognized centers across the United States, Portugal, Panama, and Costa Rica — including the New England Center for Circus Arts, Bandaloop Studios in Oakland, and the Jaya Aerial Lab in Lisbon. She completed 50 hours of Lyra aerial teacher certification through Paper Doll Militia, studied harness dance for walls and high-rise buildings with Bandaloop, and trained privately in trapeze, straps, and aerial hoop in New York City and Los Angeles.

A defining moment of the sabbatical came when Rebecca danced on the side of a 110-foot building in Oakland — nine stories above the street — performing with Bandaloop in a live aerial work visible to the city below.

In May–June 2025, she taught the first college-level aerial dance course ever offered at FSCJ — a landmark for both the institution and the state of Florida. The sabbatical culminated in the world premiere of Circo del Pantano on October 18, 2025 at the Nathan H. Wilson Center for the Arts — a full-length modern dance circus conceived, directed, and choreographed by Rebecca, developed in collaboration with JDT artists and FSCJ faculty and students. Recently renewed for it’s second year opening October 25th, 2026.

The entire journey is documented in the Sabbatical Diaries — a 17- episode YouTube series chronicling the training, residencies, performances, and creative process across the full year.

Press

"Arguably becoming the city's most cutting-edge performers making some of the most compelling art in the Southeast."

— Jacksonville Dance Theater

Important Press & Video Links


Work with me


Interested in a commissioned project or need guidance selecting the perfect piece? Reach out to schedule a complimentary consultation and explore how I can help elevate your project.

A woman with long gray hair in a red dress performing a contemporary dance move on a plain gray background.