Jean Butler is a dance artist whose work bridges the gap between culturally specific dance form and a contemporary approach to choreography. Steeped in the history of Irish step dance, Butler believes in the continual excavation of her past as a way to inform her present and create works that exemplify and safeguard the contemporary expression of the form. She has been supported and presented by The Arts Council (Ireland), The Abbey Theatre (Dublin), Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York), Danspace Project (New York), Irish Arts Center (New York), Jacobs Pillow (Massachusetts), The Joyce Theatre ( New York) The Kennedy Center (D.C.), Project Arts Centre (Dublin), and Seamus Heaney Homeplace (Northern Ireland). In 2018 Butler founded Our Steps, a not- for-profit organization committed to expanding the way we think about history, practice and performance of Irish dance. Partnering with the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library, Our Steps inaugural project, Our Steps, Our Story: An Irish Dance Legacy Archive, initiated the first living Irish dance archive to date. Butler has taught at Princeton University, University College Dublin, University of Notre Dame Global Center, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick and is an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Irish Studies at Glucksman Ireland House, New York University. Butler choreographed and starred in the original Irish dance productions, Riverdance and Dancing on Dangerous Ground. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors.  Our- steps.com

Photo by Conor Horgan