Butcher, Rosemary (1947– )

English choreographer and dancer. She is a leading exponent of avant-garde dance. Her minimalist pieces, often created in collaboration with her dancers and performed in unusual spaces such as on beaches and in art galleries, display a quiet assurance and fluidity. Touch the Earth (1986), created for the Whitechapel Gallery, London, with a soundscape of chamber music and eight dancers, is one of her best-known works.

US choreographers such as Lucinda Childs and Trisha Brown were formative influences on Butcher, who founded her own dance company in 1975. Among her other works are Space Between (1977), Flying Lines (1986), d1, d2 & d3 (1989–90), Body as Site (1993), Unbroken View (1996), and Fractured Landscapes, Fragmented Narratives (1997).