Antonio Ruz is a beacon in the contemporary dance scene. With a choreographic discourse drawing on diverse artistic references, he has composed an aesthetic profile of his own that sets him apart in the vast ocean of contemporary dance. His style, in coexistence with other artistic disciplines and with a wide international background, defies labels and categorisations.  Born in 1976 in Córdoba, Spain, his music sense was forged in the cadences of Andalusian culture. The artistic spirit that flowed through the games of a child who listened to music, built nativity scenes and danced sevillanas is still alive today in the adult who creates by playing. His creative process, where curiosity and intuition come together in scenic explorations that transcend the frontiers of dance, is defined by the diversity of methodologies and forms, creating a singular poetry. 

Antonio Ruz took his first dance steps in his native Córdoba, where he lived until 1992, when he was awarded a scholarship to train at the Víctor Ullate School in Madrid. After a successful stint at Ullate's ballet, where he played characters such as Giselle's Albrecht, in 2001 his eagerness to experience other languages and cultures took him to the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Genève. It was during this time that he made his debut as a choreographer. In his first pieces, 1 Calvario and Cebolla/Oignon, he already carved an aesthetic of his own, where the academic approach coexists with the popular imagery of his childhood, bringing the iconography of the Holy Week, local pilgrimages (romerías) and the musical universe of the confraternities to the stage.

His period abroad culminated at the Lyon Opera Ballet, where he worked as a dancer while keeping in touch with avant-garde European choreographers who contributed to his stage imagery. He took lessons from the dramatism of Mats Ek (for whom he danced Carmen together with Sylvie Guillem), learnt the rupture of space and time that distinguishes Forsythe's style, saw different works by Pina Bausch and came into contact with Sasha Waltz, creators for whom voice and theatricality represent a cardinal choreographic axis. In 2006 he returned to Spain to join Nacho Duato's Compañía Nacional de Danza as a dancer. This period marked a turning point in his career; while suffering from the worsening of an old injury, he began to explore the more expressive movements that would come to define his choreographic style. A highlight in the search for his own creative universe is his relationship with renowned choreographer Sasha Waltz, which continues to the present day. Antonio Ruz's style is steeped in Waltz's influence. He has worked side by side with her as a performer, choreographer and assistant choreographer in several of her productions, and considers her a mentor. The influence of Sasha Waltz & Guest and his collaborations with director, choreographer, dancer and musician Juan Kruz Díaz de Garaio Esnaola can be found in common interests such as the commitment to transcend the confines of dance, connecting it with theatrics, voice, costume, architecture or lighting, the intense immersive research that characterises his creative processes, the importance of theatricality over technical virtuosity and, above all, its relationship with music.In his next creations, Ruz combined what he had learnt abroad with his own experience as a dancer. In 2008 he received his first commission to create an ensemble piece for a dance company. This led to the birth of Ostinato, a piece designed for the LaMov Company in which a live piano plays the music of John Corigliano. 

In 2009 Antonio Ruz founded his own dance company in Spain. With a characteristic style open to international influences, his pieces occupy themselves with eclectic themes: philosophical, humanistic, psychological or simply musical, they are all defined by the poetry that imbues their moves. The use of live music has become one of his hallmarks as a creator. The different relationships he establishes with music cover a wide acoustic spectrum that goes beyond the confines of form and time; from operas to baroque or electronic soundscapes, music is moulded to each of his choreographies, translating into a plasticity of movement that transform dance into the music of the body. This commitment to the importance of music can be found in pieces such as À L'espagnole, fantasia escénica (2015), created in collaboration with the baroque ensemble Accademia del Piacere and directed by gambist Fahmi Alqhai; Double Bach (2016), co-created with composer Pablo M. Caminero; or the choreographed concert Signos (2020), a scenic game performed in conjunction with violist Isabel Villanueva, wherein the sonic architecture and the music of the body meld together.

Multidisciplinary dialogue is another of the creator's constants. A focal point of his danced conversations is his relationship with architecture. In the piece Recreo.02 (2015), the first site-specific creation designed for the opening of the new German School in Madrid, more than eighty performers, including dancers, young singers and students from the school, interact with the space and the light through movement and sound. Ruz's particular relationship with space also resulted in Transmutación (2018), inspired by the photo archive of the Museo Universidad de Navarra, a choreographic installation which was conceived as a moving sculpture performed through the different rooms of the museum.

Mutation, transformation, narration or contemplation are just some of the time arrangements runnig through Ruz's oeuvre, where the notion of time is always present, whether in its philosophical, existential or simply experiential facets. Time as the enigma that propels us is part of a creative game that looks to the past and transcends tradition and history, making them relevant today and projecting them into the future.

Ruz's oeuvre spans very different formats, including plotted grand ballets, as is the case of Electra (2017), created at the behest of the Ballet Nacional de España, in which the classical myth is enveloped in modernity. Its approach to music, costuming, lighting and dramaturgy marked, according to the critics, a milestone in the history of Spanish dance, earning Ruz the Premio Nacional de Danza award in 2018.

His latest commissions include his first foray into the lyrical genre, with the zarzuela El Barberillo de Lavapiés (2019) with stage director Alfredo Sanzol, or the ballet La noche de San Juan (2021) co-produced by Fundación Juan March and Gran Teatre del Liceu, which recovers the unpublished ballet created by Ventura Gassol in 1939.

In 2021 Antonio Ruz returned to the Compañía Nacional de Danza, this time as choreographer.  For this state company he created In Paradisum, a polyphonic dance that, taking the musical universe of Tomás Luis de Victoria as a starting point and sprinkled with references such as the paintings of El Greco, traverses different musical styles.

In recent years, Antonio Ruz has developed a special relationship with the camera: in 2020 Soliloquio, a piece recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic in the farmhouse of La Piedra, in his native Córdoba, premiered online.  In 2021 he directed Aún, his first dance feature, in which he commemorates the ten years of his company with a collection of choreographic pieces expressly created for the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. The Netflix film Las niñas de cristal, directed by Jota Linares, in which he worked with a cast of thirty dancers led by actress María Pedraza, will be released just a year later.

Throughout his consolidated career, his dancing has travelled to different countries in Europe, Africa and Latin America and won numerous awards. These include the RTVE "Ojo Crítico" dance award in 2013, where the jury noted the "merit of choreographies such as Ojo", as well as his ability to explore "in different styles, from classical to flamenco to contemporary, and with very different choreographers"; the Fundación Juan Bernier award in 2018 in the 'Art' category; or the Premio Nacional de Danza in 2018 in the 'Creation' category, where the jury stressed the "singular language" resulting from his extensive personal research.

Antonio Ruz creates stage pieces that reveal a recognizable personal style in which playfulness, time and music become tools to move, transform and free the audience. In constant search of beauty, his dancing, both human, organic and expressive, flows between formality and irony creating a unique visual poetry.