Rena Butler hails from Chicago, IL, and began her studies at The Chicago Academy for the Arts. She studied overseas at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan and received her BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Rena performed with companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, AIM by Kyle Abraham, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, The Kevin Wynn Collection, Pasos Con Sabor Salsa Dance Company, and Gibney Company.
Rena is a recipient of the prestigious 2019 Princess Grace Foundation Award for Choreography and San Francisco’s 2024 Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. She has created works for Het Nationale Ballet in The Netherlands, National Ballet of Canada, San Francisco Opera’s Orpheus and Euridice, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Norrdans in Sweden, Gauthier Dance in Stuttgart, Germany, The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Proximity, Cincinnati Ballet, The New Orleans Museum of Modern Art, AIM by Kyle Abraham, a film for Third Coast Percussion x Devonté Hynes/Blood Orange, Oregon Ballet Theater, The Juilliard School, Oklahoma City Ballet, Parsons Dance, TEDxChicago Virtual Salon 3.0: Design Your Life, Charlotte Ballet, BalletX, and more. She has been spotlighted in Dance Magazine’s On The Rise feature in 2013 and was the featured cover story for Dance Magazine’s November 2021 issue.
Facilitation and mentorship play a big role in Rena’s artistic persona. Butler has taught dance and choreographic workshops at L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille in France, The Macau Cultural Center in China, The Juilliard School, The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Ailey Camp Chicago, and SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. She served on the Consortium for Chicago Dancemakers Forum for 3 years, was on the annual panel for Black Girls Dance in Chicago, and co-created and directed DanceLab—a free, choreographic course for Chicago youth.
Butler’s upcoming commissions include Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Opera, SALT Dance, Ballet D’Avignon and Arles Youth Ballet in France, Parsons Dance, and more.