Rosa Rodríguez-Frazier is a teacher, dance-maker, and performing artist based in Riverside, California. Her interest as a first-generation Mexican American woman artist values “movement” as a means to corporally dismantle bi/cultural stereotypes of gender, class, race and citizenship on traditional/non-traditional U.S. performance platforms. Frazier’s movement aesthetic and choreographic interests are rooted on a mix of Late-Modern/Post-Modern and Banda-Norteño social dance forms approached by “Experimental” dance-making processes.
Former recipient of the UCR Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship Award and the GLUCK Fellowship as the Graduate coordinator of the Dance Touring Ensemble, Frazier holds a BA in Dance and an MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside, a California Teaching Credential for Single Subject Education from the University of Redlands, and a Career Technical Education Credential in Arts, Media, and Entertainment from California State University, San Bernardino.
Over the past fifteen years, Frazier has internationally trained and performed under the direction of numerous artists, a few of which include: Ann Carlson, Gerald Casel, Mark Haines, Kelli King, Anthony Loa, Jose Luis Reynoso, Nicole S. Robinson, Wendy Rogers, Sue Roginski, Susan Rose and Joel Smith (California, U.S.); Eugenia Estevez, Edgardo Mercado, Margarita Molfino and Gabriela Prado (Buenos Aires, Argentina); and Lux Boreal Danza Contemporánea (Tijuana BC, Mexico). During the spring of 2015, and in partial fulfillment of her MFA thesis at UCR, Frazier produced and directed Border Ocurrencias / “Occurrences” Fronterizas- four evening performances that engaged with ideas on the formation of Mexican American identity and its circulation between Southern California and Northern Mexico. Throughout Frazier’s artistic trajectory, she has had the opportunity to collaborate with other artists outside her field including Aram Adajian (digital music composer), Gabe Hartman, Robert Fraley, Ernesto Rodelo, Emmanuel Soriano (musicians), Katherine Guillen and Leo Rivas (visual artists).
Frazier is one of the founders and artistic collaborators of Primera Generación Dance Collective alongside Alfonso Cervera, Irvin Gonzalez and Patty Huerta. She has presented and performed collaborative work with artists including long-time dance partner, Joey Navarrete, counterpoint/shift under the direction of Sue Roginski, and Primera Generación Dance Collective at The Bootleg Theater, REDCAT center for Contemporary Arts, Brockus Project Studio, Highways Performance Space, 2015 American Dance Festival hosted at Cal State Long Beach, homeLA, Pieter Space, we live in space, Urban Press Winery and ARC (Los Angeles, California); Back to the Grind Coffee House, Culver Center of the Arts, Riverside Municipal Auditorium, University of California, Riverside, Riverside City College, Riverside Arts Museum (Riverside, California); Berkeley Art Museum, San Francisco Mission Dance Theater, and Kunst-Stoff-arts (Northern California); Zuzi! Theater, The Black Theater Troupe (Arizona); CEART Centro Cultural Tijuana, Tia Juana Tilly’s Restaurant (Tijuana, Mexico); Kapezio and Plaza Tutuli Obregón (Sonora, Mexico); Auditorio de la Universidad de la Americas, Puebla (Cholula, Mexico); and University of Wisconsin- Whitewater (Wisconsin).
Dedicated to the subject of diversity in dance education, Frazier has also had the opportunity to academically present in panels at the National Dance Education Organization Conference, the California Dance Education Organization Conference and the Professional Development of RIMS California Dance Project for Common Core Standards. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Riverside City College in Riverside, CA and co-director of the A.B. Miller High School Dance and Conservatory of Dance program in Fontana, CA. Together with members of Primera Generación Dance Collective, Frazier is a board member of Show Box L.A., a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, CA; and board member of the Latina Dance Project, a cultural non-profit corporation- originators of the BlakTinx Dance Festival.