Bruno Beltrão

Coming from the world of street dance, but also trained in contemporary dance and philosophy, Bruno Beltrão (born in 1979 in Niterói) is a Brazilian choreographer who uses urban dance styles in the context of conceptual theatre and has combined various influences, including hip hop, to form abstract choreographic landscapes.

Beltrão has wanted to direct films since he was a child and he was fascinated by cinematographic and computer-generated three-dimensional universes. However, at the age of 13 he began dancing in matinees in his hometown, starting his unexpected relationship with hip hop. In 1994 he received his first dance lesson from the Israeli teacher Yoram Szabo. A year later, his studies were interrupted and he began to teach street dance in the city’s schools. In 1996, at the age of 16, he created the Grupo de Rua de Niterói with his friend Rodrigo Bernardi. In its first two years, Grupo de Rua was dedicated to competitive dance and made appearances at festivals and on television. During this period, while they lived intensely in the hip hop world, the way the techniques of street dance were usually translated to the stage no longer attracted the group’s interest as much as it had. They actually wanted to bring hip hop dance out of the confines of its own definition.

In 2000 Beltrão enrolled in the dance faculty of the Centro Universitário da Cidade in Rio de Janeiro. In 2001 the duet From Popping to Pop premiered at the Duos de Dança no Sesc in Copacabana. This piece was Beltrão’s official debut on the contemporary dance scene in Rio de Janeiro and also marked a turning point in the career of a choreographer who was starting to develop a personal vision for the dance he had been performing. Also in 2001 he created "Me and my choreographer in 63" with the dancer Eduardo Hermanson. At the end of that year, Rodrigo Bernardi left the company and Beltrão took over running Grupo de Rua. Since then he has choreographed "Too Legit to Quit" (2002), "Telesquat" (2003), "H2" (2005), "H3" (2008), "CRACKZ" (2013) and "Inoah" (2017).