Rainey Scarborough (b. 1999, North Carolina) is a multimedia artist, photographer, choreographer, movement director, producer, and educator based in New York City. Raised in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, her work is informed by themes of embodiment, transformation, ritual, memory, and connection. Working across photography, performance, dance, film, and community-based practice, she explores how movement can serve as both an artistic medium and a way of relating to ourselves, one another, and the world around us. She holds a degree in Media & Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a 250-hour certified yoga instructor through the Asheville Yoga Center. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Photography at the Pratt Institute.

Rainey's interdisciplinary practice weaves together visual storytelling, movement research, and collaborative performance-making. Drawing from somatic practices, improvisation, dance, and image-making, she creates work that blurs the boundaries between body, image, and narrative. Her projects often take shape as performances, photographs, films, workshops, and immersive gatherings that invite participation, reflection, and collective exchange.

She has collaborated with musicians, performers, and creative organizations as a photographer, choreographer, movement director, and performer, contributing to live works, music videos, editorial projects, and multidisciplinary productions. These collaborations include work with artists such as FKA twigs, Field Medic, Kenny Hoopla, Kira McSpice, and Dev Dance Theatre. Her experience behind the camera continually informs her choreographic and performance work, shaping a practice deeply attuned to visual composition and the relationship between movement and image.

Alongside her artistic practice, Rainey works as a photographer specializing in portraiture, movement, and documentary imagery. Her photographic work is rooted in an attentiveness to gesture, emotion, and atmosphere, capturing moments of intimacy, transformation, and connection. Her experience behind the camera continually informs her choreographic and performance work, shaping a practice that is deeply attuned to visual composition and the relationship between movement and image.

Rainey is the founder of Conjure Collective (@conjure.nyc), a multidisciplinary arts collective based between New York City and North Carolina. Through performances, artist retreats, workshops, movement laboratories, and community gatherings, Conjure creates opportunities for artists across disciplines to collaborate, experiment, and build meaningful connections. Her work as a producer and curator centers accessibility, inclusivity, and the cultivation of spaces where creativity, curiosity, and the collective can thrive.

As an educator, Rainey has taught movement, dance, yoga, creative practice, and arts programming for children, teens, and adults across schools, studios, community organizations, and cultural institutions. She has taught throughout New York City and North Carolina at organizations including Dancewave, Arts On Site, Good Move, ASIA Yoga, Threehouse Studios, NYC Public Schools, and with Conjure Collective to name a few. She approaches teaching as a collaborative process rooted in play, exploration, and embodied learning, encouraging students to discover their own creative voice through movement and artistic expression.

Across all of her work, Rainey is interested in creating immersive experiences that foster presence, wonder, and deeper connection—inviting audiences and participants into spaces where movement, storytelling, and community converge.

Instagram: @r.ain.ey
Contact: work.rainey@gmail.com

✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧

Selected Clients & Collaborators

Dance & Performance
OM Grown Dancers, Dev Dance Theater, Blackbox Dance Theatre, Dances We Dance

Music
Field Medic, Run For Cover Records, KennyHoopla, Hiding Places, Kira McSpice, FKA twigs

Brands & Organizations
Chanel, Nike, Vintage by Caro, Of Earth and Salt, Sisters in Circles, Tender Attack Productions

Publications
The Queen City Style, Coulture Magazine, Voyage Magazine

Selected Performances, Screenings & Exhibitions

UNC–Chapel Hill, Shadowbox Studios, American Dance Festival, Index Space, Gold Sounds, Carolina Climbing Museum, Arts On Site, Chisenhale Dance Space, Posh The 3rd, Somos Art House, Eden Club, Green Space, 14th Street Y, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Muse Gallery, and others.

Teaching & Facilitation

Threehouse Studios, Good Move, ASIA Yoga, Dancewave, Elite Management, Inner Space Yoga, NYC Public Schools, Movement Climbing Gyms and others.