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Artist-In-Residence at Warren Alpert Medical School | Brown University; Founder and Director | Dance for All People
Rachel Balaban is Teaching Associate and inaugural Artist in Residence at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, where she plays a pivotal role in supporting the well-being and personal/professional development of medical students, residents, fellows, and other learners. Through a diverse range of art-based initiatives, she works collaboratively to help the medical school community flourish.
Ms. Balaban is the founder of Dance for All People (DAPpers), a multigenerational dance program designed for people with movement challenges and aging bodies. Her classes serve as a site placement for the Medical School’s clinical elective Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine, and for first-year medical students service learning. Her focus is to underscore the importance of combining an intergenerational framework with art to empower older adults, caregivers, and young students as they build meaningful connections with each other.
In 2013, as adjunct lecturer at Brown University, she co-founded Artists and Scientists as Partners (ASaP) and co-led for 10 years a two-semester undergraduate course sequence focusing on the impact of art on people with neurological disorders, specifically Parkinson’s disease and autism.
