Rennie Harris

Rennie Harris is a renowned choreographer known for his groundbreaking work in bringing social dances to the concert stage. He is credited with coining the term “Street Dance Theater” and has been instrumental in setting works on ballet-based companies such as Ballet Memphis, Colorado Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, among others.

Harris holds several notable achievements, including being the first street dancer commissioned to create an evening-length work for Alvin Ailey American Theater and serving as a resident artist at the Alvin Ailey school for dance. He has received three Bessie Awards and has been recently nominated for three more for the remounting of Rome & Jewels in 2023. Throughout his career, Harris has been recognized with numerous awards and honors. He has received five Black Theater Alvin Ailey Awards, the Herb Alpert Award, and a Lawrence Olivier Award nomination in the UK. He was voted one of the most influential people in the last one hundred years of Philadelphia’s history and has been compared to influential figures such as Basquiat, Alvin Ailey, and Bob Fosse.

Harris has received several fellowships, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, PEW Fellowship, and USA Artist of the Year Fellowship. He has also been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Dance Magazine and Palm Desert Dance Festival. He’s received two honorary doctorate degrees from Bates College and Columbia College Chicago. Additionally, he has served as a cultural ambassador for the US Embassy Tour and was invited to the White House by the Clinton Administration to recognize African American artists making a difference in the world. Harris has performed for dignitaries such as the Queen of England and the Princesses of Monaco. He was chosen as one of four US companies to serve as a Hip-hop cultural ambassador for President Obama’s Dance Motion USA and has toured various countries including Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Japan, China, Gambia, and Kazakstan, among others. In recent years, Harris has been awarded the Doris Duke Artist Award, The Andrew W. Mellon Grant for Building A Legacy of Street Dance, the Hermitage Greenfield Award, and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award. He is widely recognized as a leading ambassador and influential figure in the world of Hip-hop.

Photo by Osamu Inoue.