Nancy Rapoport oral history interview, 2025 June 30

Oral history interview with Nancy Rapoport conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee White on June 30, 2025 for the Game On! An Oral History of Las Vegas Sports project. In this interview, Rapoport recalls growing up Jewish in Orange, Texas, and facing discrimination and hatred. After graduating from high school, Rapoport attended Rice University with a focus on psychology and law, and later Stanford University. At Stanford she was able to explore her interests even further, and got involved with theater production, making friends and enjoying the performances they created together. She recalls how she took up ballroom dancing after graduating and has been in love with the sport ever since. Rapoport recalls moving to Columbus, Ohio, teaching law and continuing to dance. Eventually, she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2007 and began teaching at Boyd School of Law with a focus on ethics. She furthered her dancing career during this time, and remembers watching the competitions grow from making your own costumes, to now having multiple vendors for every possible costume request. She describes the intricacies of costumes, and how costumers have now created a system where you can resell costumes and trade them in for new ones. Rapoport speaks about the beauty of acceptance at ballroom competitions, and how everyone is inclusive and accepting. She relates a lot of the fear and loss she feels during competitions to her law student’s college experience, and how it makes her connect with her students further. Digital audio available, no transcript available.