Rena Butler ’11
Originally from Chicago, Rena Butler ’11 is a performer, choreographer, mentor, and educator.
She has danced with fellow Purchase alum Kyle Abraham’s company A.I.M., Hubbard Street Dance, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, The Kevin Wynn Collection, and Gibney Company.
Butler 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 also received the 2025 Ferradini Grandér Award from Danza in Arte de Pietrasanta Festival, Italy, which honors artistic excellence and originality in choreographic language.
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, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Norrdans in Sweden, AIM By Kyle Abraham, Gauthier Dance in Stuttgart, Germany, The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Proximity, Cincinnati Ballet, Le Ballet de L’Opéra Grand Avignon and Arles Youth Ballet Company in France, The New Orleans Museum of Modern Art, SALT Dance, 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.
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 the Chicago youth, and a 3-year member of Dancewave’s Artistic Advisory Council.
In 2021, Butler was named Gibney Company’s first-ever choreographic associate.
She appeared in Dance Magazine’s “On The Rise” feature in 2013 and was the featured cover story in their November 2021 issue. She also appeared on the cover of Germany’s Tanz (Nov. 2025).
She’s also been featured in dance-focused books, such as Jordan Matter’s Dancers Among Us and renowned celebrity portrait photographer Mark Mann’s Movement at the Still Point: An Ode to Dance.
She began her studies at The Chicago Academy for the Arts and studied overseas at Taipei National University of the Arts while at Purchase.
Butler returned to Purchase during the fall 2018 season as a guest artist for the Purchase Dance Company.
Read Rena Butler: The Epitome of Contemporary Cool in Dance Magazine.