Q&A with Rena Butler
Rena Butler in the PNB studios. Photo © Lindsay Thomas.
As part of our DIRECTOR’S CHOICE program, PNB is excited to present a world premiere by a choreographer who isn’t yet familiar to PNB audiences, Rena Butler. Read on to learn more about Rena and her work!
What was your path to becoming a choreographer?
Rena: It started from the tender age of ten. There was a show on MTV called Making the Video. You saw the inner workings of a music video. That was the first time I ever marveled at a process. Kyle Abraham was the first one to push me into choreography as a profession. When we were on the road, he would task me for about three hours in the studio with two dancers. Then, I joined Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company, and I learned a lot there. My choreographic career really took off at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. I was Choreographic Fellow, and a few years later, won a Princess Grace award.
What’s your choreographic process like?
Rena: It’s an alchemy of sorts. I can manage anywhere from five to eleven commissions at a time, so every day I chip away. Most mornings, I take two to three hours to look at each sliver of a commission and prioritize due dates. When we’re closer to the process, I see the mountain of work that I’ve created and I’m able to pull from, so that I avoid the block. With this work, I wanted major preparation because of how talented these dancers are. I wanted to show up as my best, as much as they show up for me. Coming into the studio the first time, workshopping the ideas, having a big audition with the entire company, you fall into more clarity about where it is you want to go.
What themes and concepts are driving your new work for PNB?
Rena: There is really only one question driving my curiosities in making this new work for Pacific Northwest Ballet: Does fervent worship lead to true transcendence?
I’ve been exploring multiple avenues of identity, and how to release or let go of the doubts or questions holding us back from the honest evolutionary journey towards our higher selves.
The filter in which I’m approaching this from is derivative of a catholic school landscape/perspective. I went to a catholic school for the majority of my childhood. What I remember most about my education was the strictness in following directions; to stay in line with my peers, how to genuflect properly while in a cathedral, averting eye contact with adults when responding to them, and to be as quiet and as docile as I was able to be in reverence to authority and a higher, unseen power that would determine my temporary or everlasting fate. There would always be serious repercussions if I were to step outside of these bounds. To me, these were the cracks found within the fundamental building of the self. What is beneath or inside of each crack, and what is left when it all comes crumbling down?
This work is very different for me. I am normally making dances with heavy percussion, lots of bite and deep sensuality. This ballet is shaping up to be something entirely otherworldly from my usual tips and tricks. I’m excited to lift up the folds of this process to see what’s on the other side of it.
Rena Butler rehearses with PNB Company dancers. Photo © Lindsay Thomas.
What’s been unique about working with PNB?
Rena: It’s been one of my favorite processes to date. This company is incredibly talented, but there’s no arrogance about that talent. There is none, anywhere, not under a couch or in the corner of a dusty studio! They’re incredibly generous, trickling down from Peter, through Kiyon, through Ezra and Johnny, through the dancers, and beyond.
What excites you about the field of dance right now?
Rena: I think that the collective is becoming a bit more intuitive. We’ve always had a very type A way of navigating our careers. “You give your time to a company for 10 years, then you break off, and then you might become a director or choreographer.” Now I feel people as young as 18 are interested in freelance. Some choreographers don’t even decide to be in a company. I think we’re all becoming a little bit more sensitive, which is promising. Let’s see where it goes.
Rena Butler rehearses with PNB Company dancers. Photos © Lindsay Thomas.
What are you reading/watching/listening to right now?
Rena: Reading: Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen. It’s about how to stop overthinking, how to tap directly into your flow, and live life from a playful scope. Also, Moon Tarot to know how to align my tarot cards and get the best from the moon energy during different moon cycles.
Watching: White Lotus. I love the clever, sinister tonality to it through this light humor, which is actually quite dark. Anything on Criterion Collection. I’ve been seeing a lot of dance now that I’m back home in New York, like Ohad Naharin’s MOMO. A friend of mine Kayla Farrish put on her own show with her own collective, and I’m loving supporting people I know.
Listening: Doechii. She’s bold, she’s daring, she’s inappropriate, graphic, and I love every minute. I love the podcast ReWilding with Sabrina Lynn. It’s all things intuitive, all things cosmic.
I’m falling into things that are outside of my craft, which I have my nose in 24/7. It’s cool to look at life a little sideways from this upright, structured way of living and doing, to find more creative ways to be and enjoy.
