Join internationally acclaimed choreographer Rena Butler for a high‑energy, movement‑driven masterclass designed for professional and pre‑professional dancers as part of Red Clay Dance Company’s biennial La Femme Dance Festival.

Rena’s workshops are playfully geared towards kinetic + intuitive investigation while sharpening useful tools to deepen a multifaceted approach to an artistic experience. The workshop begins with guided imagery, exploring both fluid and stabilizing exercises to inform various structures in the body. It then flows into dynamic phrasing that encompasses improvisational tasks, floor work, detailed gesturing, musicality, and more.

ABOUT RENA BUTLER 

Rena Butler began her studies at The Chicago Academy for the Arts. She has performed with companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, AIM by Kyle Abraham, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, and Gibney Company, among others.

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, National Ballet of Canada, Hubbard Street, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Gauthier Dance, The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Proximity, Cincinnati Ballet, BalletX, and many more.

Facilitation and mentorship play a big role in Rena’s artistic persona. She has taught dance and choreographic workshops at The Juilliard School, The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Ailey Camp Chicago, and more. 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.

Rena has just completed an artistic residency with Red Clay Dance Company, setting a new work that will premiere in our Mainstage Performance at the Harris Theater this season.