REBECCA DAVIS
Founder & Artistic Director, The Rebecca Davis Dance Company

Entrepreneur and choreographer, Rebecca Davis has constantly sought opportunities to deepen her academic knowledge to broaden the artistic scope of her organization, The Rebecca Davis Dance Company, located in Philadelphia. She founded the not-for-profit organization three years ago with the mission of using contemporary ballet to deepen the public's knowledge of famous literary works, significant historical events and modern social issues. In addition to the professional troupe, the Company's unique pre-professional dance-theater training program fills the market gap between training and professional employment for young dancers in the Philadelphia community.

Originally from Vancouver, Rebecca has choreographed and taught in Canada, Russia, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and the United States. She was classically trained in the Russian Vaganova method of ballet while studying in Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, Russia. She received a degree in choreography from The Saint Petersburg Conservatory under the tutelage of Nikolai Boyarchikov (former Artistic Director, The Mussorgsky Ballet). She is a Fulbright scholar and summa cum laude graduate of Temple University with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship. She is currently pursuing a Masters of International Relations with a concentration in Peacekeeping through the American Public University System. In summer 2009, she spent two months in Brcko, Bosnia-Herzegovina, developing a creative movement program for youth of diverse ethnic backgrounds focusing on the theme of reconciliation in a post-conflict country.

Prior to starting her own organization, Rebecca acquired substantial arts management experience serving as a marketing intern at Stage Holding Russia (Moscow), International Ballet Theatre (New York) and The Lincoln Center of The Performing Arts. Her award-winning business plan for The Rebecca Davis Dance Company was recognized as the most viable small business by The 2004 Annual Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. She is the recipient of the Garfield Weston Scholarship, Canadian Merit Scholarship and is a two-time winner of the League for Entrepreneurial Women's Essay Competition. She was recognized by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown as one of the Next Generation of Women Leaders and is a 2009 participant in the Forum for Executive Women Mentor Program.

Rebecca has choreographed five full-length ballets: Antigone (Kimmel Center, 2006), Helen Keller (Prince Music Theatre, 2007), Darfur (Arden Theater, 2008), Greed: The Tale of Enron (Prince Music Theatre, 2009) and Van Gogh (Prince Music Theatre, 2009).