EDUCATION & FACILITATION
Steps on Broadway:
Black Voices in Dance
Int/Adv Contemporary Master Class
GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
In Process: Restaging, "This That and the Third"
COLLEGIATE COMMISSIONS
“This, That, and the Third” by Rena Butler opened the second half of the program and was my favorite work of the evening. Inspired by the performance of code-switching, “This, That, and the Third” was a work for six dancers, danced in Saturday’s performance by Odin Brock, Joshua Dias, Sanaa Fairley, Morgan Olschewske, Nateisha Reaves, and Kalen Simpson. It felt like an introspective progression from isolated anxiety to collective joy. Beginning with the six dancers in a row across the stage wearing white shorts, knee-pads, and shirtless or in white tank tops, the whole work had a modern art gallery aesthetic. Five of the dancers left the stage and the remaining dancer pulled a baggy, translucent yellow mesh tracksuit over her white undergarments. It was a moment of self contemplation and wrestling with individual identity. The other dancers returned with similar outfits in different colors. Over the course of the work, the dancers confronted the identities of their characters, either alone against a relation to the group, or in pairs."
Dance Review: George Mason University Dance Company’s 2024 Gala Concert at George Mason University Center for the Arts
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.
A Study of a Mind's I
"How does one give form to the unknown through theories that are intangibly latent to the self and
their surroundings?"
Choreographer: Rena Butler, in collaboration with the dancers
Music: Gnossienne No. 3 by Erik Satie, played by pianist Olivia Belli
Original composition by Darryl J. Hoffman
Text: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
Adapted and spoken by Rena Butler
Lighting Designer: Nicole Pearce
Costume Coordinator: Tiffany Chen
Stage Manager: Sam Benson
Rehearsal Assistant: Madison Pineda
Dancers: Juilliard Dance Class of 2024
THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL
New Dances 2021 | Class of 2024
A Study of the Mind's I