Dr Rachel Rimmer-Piekarczyk
Senior Lecturer
Drama and Contemporary Performance
I am an interdisciplinary artist, scholar and teacher with a background in contemporary dance practice. I teach on the BA Drama and Contemporary Performance and MA Performance programmes and I am a core member of the Performance Research Group. My practice-based research investigates alternative models for performer training that foreground the relationship between critical reflection, embodiment and agency, the use of scores in dance and performance making processes and sustainable pedagogical approaches for performance in higher education. I serve on the editorial board of the journal Theatre, Dance and Performance Training and I am part of the editorial team for the Special Issue of Performance Research, titled On Scores (Vol 30 No. 6).I have also acted as an invited peer reviewer for the academic journals Documenta and the Brazilian Journal of Presence Studies.
Since 2012, I have been a core member of the internationally recognised contemporary performance group Reckless Sleepers, contributing as a performer, deviser, and facilitator across a range of projects that have toured in the UK and internationally, including:
- Inteatro Festival - Polverigi Italy
- Kulturfestival - Stockholm
- Blanch Nuits - Brussels
- FAB Festival - Bordeaux
- Rassegna Festival - Milan
- MAC La Merce - Barcelona
- Veranos de la Villa - Madrid
- La Manufacture - Avignon
- Unidram Festival - Potsdam Germany
- Lowry - UK
I also lead my own artistic projects as a facilitator, maker and performer. For example, I have recently been invited to be a commissioned artist for an interdisciplinary performing arts festival titled Back to the Bone, which is taking place in Stoke-on-Trent in June 2026.
I am the Deputy Programme Leader for the BA Drama and Contemporary Performance programme and was previously joint Programme Leader for the BA Hons Dance programme at Manchester Metropolitan University in Cheshire. Having facilitated arts projects in a range of educational, professional and community based settings (eg. Stoke-on-Trent Theatres Creative Learning Department, Dance in Devon, Pavilion Dance Southwest), I am committed to creating learning spaces for an accessible, inclusive and critically engaged arts practice.
I hold a PhD in Dance Studies, a Master's degree in Contemporary Arts (awarded with Distinction), a BA (Hons) in Community Arts, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, making me a Fellow of Advance HE.
Academic and Professional Qualifications
PhD in Dance Studies: Manchester Metropolitan University (2014 - 2021).
MA Contemporary Arts: Manchester Metropolitan University (2009 - 2011).
Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice: Manchester Metropolitan University (2011 - 2013).
BA Community Arts: Manchester Metropolitan University (2004 - 2007).
Previous Employment
Senior Lecturer and Joint Programme Leader: BA Hons Dance: Manchester Metropolitan University (2011 - 2019).
Postgraduate Research Supervision
I am currently supervising PhD students who are undertaking studies in the areas of performer training, performance archives and musical composition.
External Examiner Roles
External Examiner for the BA Hons Dance and Creative Performance programme at The University of Wolverhampton (2019 - 2025).
External Subject Specialist for BA Hons Dance periodic review at Leeds Beckett University (2018).
Research
My research investigates the entangled relationships between embodiment, critical reflection and agency within contemporary dance and performance training. Rooted in my experience as a teacher-practitioner, my scholarly work interrogates how dancers learn, reflect and create under the influence of dominant pedagogical and institutional discourses.
My doctoral study employed an ethnographic-action research methodology to explore how western dance technique education shapes, and often constrains, the agency of contemporary dance students. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's analysis of social fields and habitus (1977), my thesis examined the social conditions that structure training environments and analysed how these conditions impact dancers' capacity to act, question, and intervene in their own learning. Findings from this research have been published in Research in Dance Education (2017), Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices (2018 & 2023), Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (2024), and in the edited collection Ethical Agility in Dance: Rethinking Dance Technique in British Contemporary Dance (2024 - edited by Colin, Seago & Stamp).
My current research extends these enquiries through my artistic practice, both as a core member of the internationally recognised contemporary performance group Reckless Sleepers and as an independent artist. Working through practice-as-research methodologies, I explore alternative models for performer training across educational and professional contexts, score-based approaches to choreography and performance, and sustainable pedagogical frameworks for higher education. These investigations are informed by long-term involvement in score-led performance processes, particularly within Reckless Sleepers' work, and by a sustained commitment to critically reflective practice.
I have presented my research findings at major conferences including DanceHE symposiums (2015, 2016) TaPRA (2021, 2022), Performing Scores/Scoring Performance at HOME, Manchester (2023), Subject/Object/Practice/Place at the University of Malta (2024), Igniting Creativity: Art, Education, Transformation and Change conference at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (2025) and the Participation, Engagement and Creativity in the Performing Arts conference at the University of Malta (2025).
My artistic and pedagogical practice is regularly showcased as part of Manchester Metropolitan University’s Future Flares Festival. For example, in 2025 I led Tessellation, a participatory dance project involving university students and external artists. The project was subsequently featured as an example of practice-as-research in a film presented at MMU's Future of Practice Research event (2025): https://futureofpracticeresearch.mmu.ac.uk/
Across my research, teaching and performance work, I remain committed to exploring embodied knowledge, questioning entrenched pedagogical norms, and developing reflective, inclusive and sustainable approaches to contemporary dance and performance training.
Performances
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2025. 'Tessellation', Future Flares Festival - Manchester School of Theatre, 19/3/2025.
Book Chapters
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2024. 'Facilitating individual agency in British contemporary dance technique training: a praxical pedagogical approach'. In Colin, N., Seago, C., Stamp, K. (eds.) Ethical Agility in Dance: rethinking technique in British contemporary dance, pp. 81-96, Routledge, London.
Journal Articles
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2024. 'Constructing codes of behaviour: the 'doxic agreement' as a force for agency in contemporary dance technique training', Theatre, Dance and Performance Training.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2023. 'Destabilizing the habitus in contemporary dance technique training: the 'reflexive-dialogical' as a mode of 'practising'', Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 15 (1), pp. 119-131.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2018. 'Self-somatic authority: Exploring the cultivation of somatic intelligence through a dialogic approach to self-reflection in dance technique learning', Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 10 (1), pp. 95-110.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2017. 'Negotiating the rules of engagement: exploring perceptions of dance technique learning through Bourdieu's concept of 'doxa'', Research in Dance Education, 18 (3), pp. 221-236.
Rimmer, R.S., 2017. 'Questions as 'springboards': a dialogic approach to fostering critical enquiry and reflection in dance technique learning.', Learning and Teaching in Action, 12 (1), pp. 83-100.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2015. 'Reimagining Reflective Practice in the Dance Technique Class', Innovative Practice in Higher Education, 2 (2).
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2013. 'Improvising with Material in the Higher Education Dance Technique Class: Exploration and Ownership', Journal of Dance Education.
Conference Papers
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2025. 'Inculcating a relationship of correspondence in contemporary dance training through dialogue and creative reflection.', igniting creativity: art, education, transformation and change., Northern School of Contemporary Dance, 8/1/2025 - 8/1/2025.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., Egan, K., 2025. 'Navigating Participation, Protest and Resistance in Reckless Sleepers' Binary Opposition Project.', Participation, Engagement and Creativity in the Performing Arts, University of Malta, 5/3/2025 - 8/3/2025.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., Kendall, L., 2024. 'Agency And Awakening: Creative Connections Attributed To Reckless Sleepers' A String Section.', Subject/Object/Practice/Place: Connecting Creatively Through the Performing Arts, University of Malta, Valetta, 20/3/2024 - 22/3/2024.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., Kendall, L., 2023. 'Agency and Awakening: Opportunities within a Score.', Performing Scores/Scoring Performance, Manchester Metropolitan University: Performance Research Group, 11/7/2023 - 12/7/2023.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2021. 'Doxic agreements and agency in contemporary dance technique education: a reflexive-dialogical approach', Theatre and Performance Research Association Annual Conference, Liverpool Hope University, 6/9/2021 - 9/9/2021.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2016. ''Iterative inquiry: exploring reflective learning in dance technique across three cycles of action research.'', Dance HE 'Sustaining the Discipline: Embedding the Right to Dance in the C21st', Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds UK, 28/10/2016 - 29/10/2016.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2016. ''Stimulating 'unique intellectual adventures' in dance technique learning: questions as springboards for reflective enquiry'.', Dance HE 'Questioning methods of practice, pedagogy and research'., University of Bedfordshire, UK., 7/4/2016 - 7/4/2016.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., Guarino, J., 2016. 'Reflective Practice and Dance Scholarship', Expanded Practice and Curation as Creative Process Symposium, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2/2016.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2015. 'Making Material Meaningful: Nurturing the Thinking Dancer in the Higher Education Dance Technique Class', Department of Contemporary Arts Research Symposium, Manchester Metropolitan University, 3/2015.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2014. 'Evaluating the Impact of Alternative Learning Strategies in the Higher Education Dance Technique Class', MMU Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University Graduate School, 11/2014.
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2014. 'Introducing Choice in the Higher Education Dance Technique Class', Higher Education Academy Arts and Humanities 'Heroes and Monsters' Conference, The Lowry: Manchester, 6/2014, in https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/disciplines/Arts_and_Humanities/Heroes_and_Mosters_Post_Event_Resources/Rachel.
Presentations
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., Egan, K., 2025. 'Navigating Participation, Protest and Resistance in Reckless Sleepers' Binary Opposition Project.'.
Theses and Dissertations
Rimmer-Piekarczyk, R., 2022. 'Doxic agreements and the mobilisation of agency: examining students' engagement with cognitive reflection in relation to the dominant pedagogical discourses of western dance technique education'.