Rena Butler is an award-winning choreographer and educator from Chicago, Illinois, recognized for her expansive artistic vision and cross-disciplinary collaborations. A graduate of The Chicago Academy for the Arts, she continued her training internationally at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan before earning her BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance.

As a performer, Butler appeared with many of today’s leading contemporary companies, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, A.I.M 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. Her dynamic performing career informs a choreographic voice known for emotional depth, musical sophistication, and theatrical clarity.

Butler is the recipient of the 2019 Princess Grace Foundation Award for Choreography, one of the field’s most prestigious honors, as well as San Francisco’s 2024 Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. She also received The Ferradini Grander Award from Danza in Arte a Pietrasanta and the Ministry of Culture in Italy.

Her choreographic commissions span internationally renowned ballet and contemporary institutions, including Het Nationale Ballet (Netherlands), National Ballet of Canada, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Opera (Orpheus and Eurydice), Le Ballet de L’Opéra Grand Avignon, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Norrdans (Sweden), A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Gauthier Dance (Germany), Cincinnati Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Parsons Dance, Charlotte Ballet, BalletX, Oklahoma City Ballet, and The Juilliard School. She has also created interdisciplinary projects, including a film collaboration with Third Coast Percussion and Devonté Hynes (Blood Orange). Butler was featured in Dance Magazine’s “On the Rise” (2013) and as the magazine’s November 2021 cover story.

Deeply committed to mentorship and artistic development, Butler has taught and led workshops at L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille, The Juilliard School, The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Ailey Camp Chicago, SUNY Purchase, and The Macau Cultural Center. She co-created and directed DanceLab, a free choreographic program for Chicago youth, and has served in leadership roles with Chicago Dancemakers Forum and Black Girls Dance.