Saint Louis Dance Theatre (STLDT) unveils its 2026-2027 Elements of Harmony season, a landmark lineup of five world premiere commissions by some of contemporary dance’s most compelling voices. Choreographers Rena Butler, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Houston Thomas, and Dexandro Montalvo join Artistic Director Kirven Douthit-Boyd to create an entire season of new work for the region’s premier professional contemporary dance company. Three of the four guest choreographers are Princess Grace Award recipients – among the most competitive honors in American dance.
The 2026-2027 season represents a bold investment in original creation and an extraordinary interplay of movement, music, and storytelling. Each guest choreographer will be in residence with the company, building work on STLDT’s dancers from the studio floor up. Butler, a Prince Grace Award winner (2019) and Isadora Duncan Dance Award recipient whose choreography spans San Francisco Opera, Dutch National Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet, opens the season alongside Jinakunwiphat, a Princess Grace Award winner (2023) and the first Asian woman commissioned by New York City Ballet. A new premiere by Douthit-Boyd, former principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, rounds out the opening weekend’s program. Together, their new works anchor the Fall Series at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center on Oct.23-25, 2026.
The Spring Series brings Houston Thomas, a Princess Grace Award winner (2025) whose career arc stretches from Chicago’s South Side to a decade as a soloist with Dresden Semperoper Ballett, with commissions from the Joffrey Ballet, The Washington Ballet, and Opéra National de Bordeaux. He is joined by Dexandro Montalvo, a two-time Isadora Duncan Dance Award recipient returning to the company where he previously set Such Sweet Thunder in 2019.
“This season is about giving artists the space to make something that doesn’t exist yet,” said Douthit-Boyd. “Every one of these choreographers brings a distinct voice, a different way of moving through the world. What they share is rigor, imagination, and a deep respect for the dancers in the room. That’s how we build a repertoire with diversity of tones, textures, and viewpoints.”
The four guest choreographers represent a cross-section of where contemporary dance is heading. Butler’s percussive, emotionally direct choreography has earned commissions from the National Ballet of Canada, Juilliard, and Ailey II, while her recent work choreographing Orpheus and Eurydice for San Francisco Opera signals a growing movement of contemporary dance makers shaping large-scale narrative forms. In 2025, she received the Ferradini Grander Award, an Italian honor for artistic excellence in choreography.
Jinakunwiphat, a former member of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, made history with her 2023 New York City Ballet commission Fortuitous Ash and has since been named a 92NY Harkness Dance Center Artist in Residence for 2025-26. Her choreography emphasizes connectivity – work built on relationships between dancers.
Thomas brings a singular trajectory: raised on Chicago’s South Side, trained through Joffrey outreach programs and the School of American Ballet, and forged over a decade as a soloist with Dresden Semperoper Ballett. His choreography treats ballet as a living language, reshaping classical vocabulary with contemporary urgency. His works have been presented through the New York Choreographic Institute and commissioned by companies in the United States and Europe.
Montalvo, former artistic director of Dance Theatre of San Francisco, brings a movement aesthetic that blends ballet, modern dance, and hip-hop, pushing the boundaries of musicality and physicality. His work for STLDT will mark his second commission for the company, following Such Sweet Thunder, which he set on the company (then Big Muddy Dance Company) in 2019.
“Our Elements of Harmony season reflects who we are becoming as a company – an organization that commissions boldly, invests in artists, and trusts that St. Louis audiences are ready for work that challenges and moves them,” said Erin Prange, executive director. “World-class dance should be accessible to everyone in our community, and every program we offer – from Community Night to our Youth Access Program – is designed to make that real, not aspirational.”
Tickets for STLDT’s 2026-2027 season start at $25 (student) and are available at stldancetheatre.org.
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