Cat Ruka (born 1983) is a New Zealand dancer, choreographer, performance director and arts manager.

Biography

Ruka is the daughter of Raureti and Vida Ruka, and spent her early life at her mother's home in Warkworth and her father's Hokianga marae. She affiliates to the Ngāpuhi and Waitaha

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

. Ruka completed a bachelor's degree, a post-graduate diploma and a master's degree in dance studies at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

, New Zealand. She lectured in performing arts at

Manukau Institute of Technology Established in 1970, Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) ( mi, Te Whare Takiura o Manukau) is a large Category One institute of technology in Auckland, New Zealand. Category One is the highest possible educational rating as evaluated by the ...

for 10 years, and was artistic director of

Tempo Dance Festival Tempo Dance Festival is an annual pan-genre professional dance festival held in Auckland, New Zealand and is the 'longest standing annual dance event' of New Zealand, founded in 2003. History Tempo Dance Festival started in 2003 from an in ...

in 2020. In 2018 Ruka along with Carrie Rae Cunningham mentored ''FRESH,'' an emerging dance programme in the Tempo Dance Festival. In 2020, Ruka was appointed executive director of the Basement Theatre in Auckland.

Creative works and appearances

''Playing Savage'' choreographed and performed by Cat Ruka was presented in the 2010 Kōwhiti Festival of Māori Contemporary Dance at Soundings Theatre,

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

, Wellington. Ruka choreographed the

's first production in 2011, a

South Auckland South Auckland is an imprecisely defined urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, with a young population, a relatively large Polynesian and Māori demographic, and lower incomes than other parts of Auckland. The name ''South Auckland'', though not ...

version of ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...

.'' Created and performed in 2011 by Ruka and dancer and performance artist Josh Rutter ''NEW TREATY MILITIA'' is a production developed in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany as part of the Matchpoint Choreographer Meeting, a 7 day event curated by

Jochen Roller Jochen Roller (born 1971) is a German choreographer and performance artist. Life Born in Berlin, Roller studied applied theatre studies at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen and choreography at the Rudolf von Laban centre in London. He ha ...

and Anna Wagner. ''NEW TREATY MILITIA'' premiered at the

Hebbel am Ufer The Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) is a theater and international performance center based in Berlin. It was founded by combining three theaters in Kreuzberg, Berlin: Hebbel Theater (now called HAU1), Theater am Halleschen Ufer (theater at Hallesches Ufer) ( ...

performance centre in Berlin, and then toured to: Boutique Studios,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York; Tempo Dance Festival, Q Theatre; Southside Arts Festival,

Ōtara Ōtara is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand (formerly Manukau City), situated 18 kilometres to the southeast of the Auckland CBD. Ōtara lies near the head of the Tamaki River (actually an arm of the Hauraki Gulf), which extends south tow ...

; a secret venue in Dunedin in a double-bill with Warwick Broadhead; and The Long Hall, Roseneath, Wellington. It explored contentious issues about the Treaty of Waitangi. At the Maidment Theatre, Auckland in 2012 Ruka performed an experimental solo work along in a double-bill along with Tru Paraha called ''HINE-2012,'' this was a forum with discussion after the performances and described as: "Indigenous choreographers frame the body as a site for investigation and present their works in an evening of dynamic theatre." In 2017 Ruka directed ''Neon Bootleg'' created by Moe Laga-Fa'aofo and produced by

FAFSWAG FAFSWAG is an arts collective of Māori and Pacific LGBTQI+ artists and activists founded in Auckland, New Zealand in 2013. They explore and celebrate the unique identity of gender fluid Pacific people and LGBTQI+ communities in multi-discipli ...

at Basement Theatre. Ruka created a dance film installation zodiac as part of ''Embodied contemplation: A mixed bill'' at the Basement Theatre in 2019. In 2019 Ruka was the keynote speaker at the Tiny Performance Festival in Otautahi Christchurch where she talked of 'performance as medicine'.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruka, Cat 1983 births Living people Ngāpuhi people University of Auckland alumni Academic staff of Manukau Institute of Technology New Zealand choreographers 21st-century New Zealand dancers Waitaha (South Island iwi)