Sep 28, 2026 · 46 min · 13 segments
[Saint Louis Dance Theatre](stldancetheatre.org/fallseries) presents a world premiere by Rena Butler this October for the company's Fall Series performance weekend at the Touhill Performing Arts…
Rena ButlerGuest
Kirven Douthit-BoydGuest
Soraya CohenHost
Carly VanderheydenHostDo you usually, when you get the idea for a piece, like see the whole, like you mentioned the costumes, like does the whole thing come to you and like the big picture, like which elements are you? always considering when you first start out
before anything okay because i'm a big fan of old cinema i love hitchcock and his use of light and shadow and how to tell a story just with light what things are shown versus what things are purposefully concealed and how do i complement that with movement vocabulary
yeah
and so that really for me is the narrative and the music after that in their movement
really
almost backwards yeah yeah like people like normally you start with music or movement and then you light but i know in julie ballard my lighting designer that i've worked on with several projects before so glad when kervin was like what do you think about julie ballard Because she's ahead of me in that way.
And
you
just building and building and it's just I feel really blessed to have that support and and smart people that help educate me with their own mastery and and also to be in the studio with my items You are prompting me to also think clearly enough about the work so that I don't get stuck here and I can't see what it is.
It's just so nice to have shepherds and to allow other people to steer and drive the vision forward.
Because it's a collective ambition that we all agree upon at the end of the day.
And how can we, you knowing your audience better than I do, your dancers better than I do, How do we come together to like really make this thing happen? And I've been feeling that since day one.
You know, I feel like I bring, first of all, like, you know, the expectation is set in the room for the dancers in terms of like how we approach our work, right? And, you know, what curb and mics and whatever, you know, that thing is.
Do you usually, when you get the idea for a piece, like see the whole, like you mentioned the costumes, like does the whole thing come to you and like the big picture, like which elements are you? always considering when you first start out
before anything okay because i'm a big fan of old cinema i love hitchcock and his use of light and shadow and how to tell a story just with light what things are shown versus what things are purposefully concealed and how do i complement that with movement vocabulary
yeah
and so that really for me is the narrative and the music after that in their movement
really
almost backwards yeah yeah like people like normally you start with music or movement and then you light but i know in julie ballard my lighting designer that i've worked on with several projects before so glad when kervin was like what do you think about julie ballard Because she's ahead of me in that way.
And
you
just building and building and it's just I feel really blessed to have that support and and smart people that help educate me with their own mastery and and also to be in the studio with my items You are prompting me to also think clearly enough about the work so that I don't get stuck here and I can't see what it is.
It's just so nice to have shepherds and to allow other people to steer and drive the vision forward.
Because it's a collective ambition that we all agree upon at the end of the day.
And how can we, you knowing your audience better than I do, your dancers better than I do, How do we come together to like really make this thing happen? And I've been feeling that since day one.
You know, I feel like I bring, first of all, like, you know, the expectation is set in the room for the dancers in terms of like how we approach our work, right? And, you know, what curb and mics and whatever, you know, that thing is.
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