Jean Butler: ‘When that show closed, I wasn’t sure if I would ever dance again – it felt like such a public failure’

As she returns for a TG4 lifetime achievement award, the dancer looks back on her career

Jean Butler in New York. Photo: John Midgley

Liadán Hynes

‘I’m not in the business of ­talking about myself,” Jean Butler says somewhat uncomfortably.

We’re speaking because Jean is receiving a Lifetime Achievement at the Gradam Ceoil TG4 awards in May. She’s sitting in her office in the New York home she shares with her husband Cuan Hanly, an elegant sun-filled cream room. The woman herself is wearing a black polo-neck and black glasses, her red hair poker-straight.