Rachel Rimmer-Piekarczyk

Dr Rachel Rimmer-Piekarczyk is a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Contemporary Performance at the Manchester School of Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University. An artist-scholar and core member of the internationally recognized performance group Reckless Sleepers since 2012, she bridges critical theory and artistic practice. Her research centers on agency cultivation through critical reflection in dance training, drawing on Bourdieu and Freire to interrogate embodiment and pedagogical power structures within westernized technique frameworks.

Her academic qualifications include:

• PhD in Dance Studies from Manchester Metropolitan University (2014-2021)
• MA in Contemporary Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University (2009-2011)
• BA in Community Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University (2004-2007)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from Manchester Metropolitan University (2011-2013), earning Advance HE Fellowship

Rimmer-Piekarczyk's research investigates how dialogical reflection subverts dominant discourses in dance education to foster performer agency. Her ethnographic-action research examines social conditions within training environments, exploring how critical consciousness develops through praxical pedagogy. She extends this inquiry into contemporary scored performance, analyzing how choreographic scores like Reckless Sleepers' A String Section create structures for emergent agency while destabilizing habitual power dynamics.

Her 2023-2024 publications reveal a concentrated focus on doxic agreements and ethical agility in British dance training, demonstrating how reflexive-dialogical approaches disrupt entrenched pedagogical norms. This work increasingly integrates theoretical frameworks with artistic practice, particularly through performance-presentations that materialize embodied knowledge. Her scholarship consistently emphasizes the transformative potential of critical reflection to cultivate 'somatic authority' and ethical responsiveness in dancers.

She currently supervises PhD research in contemporary theatre practice, pedagogy, and musical composition while serving as External Examiner for the University of Wolverhampton's Dance and Creative Performance programme. Her academic leadership extends through postgraduate research supervision and curriculum development informed by her dual expertise as practitioner-scholar.

As a core Reckless Sleepers member, she contributes to international touring projects as performer, deviser, and facilitator. The company's collaborative process—especially the long-term development of A String Section—functions as a living laboratory for her research, where theoretical concepts about agency and structure are tested and refined through embodied practice.