Juan Kruz Díaz
de Garaio Esnaola

Juan Kruz Díaz de Garaio Esnaola was born in Legazpi, in the Spanish Basque Country. After completing his musical studies at the San Sebastian Conservatory of Music, he graduated as a countertenor at the Akademie voor Oude Muziek in Amsterdam, where he began his career as a singer. His meeting with Marcelo Evelin in Amsterdam, who invited him to take part in his choreography Muzot, led him to further explore the potential of the body as tool and instrument of expression. 

After working, among others, with P.C. Scholten, Emio Greco, Arthur Rosenfeld and Lloyd Newson (DV8 Physical Theatre), meets Sasha Waltz in 1995, who invites him to the creation of Allee der Kosmonauten, and which will mark the beginning of their long and fruitful relationship that ends in 2022. 

In addition to his contribution as a dancer and performer, he was responsible for the direction and musical composition of several of his works and was rehearsal director and artistic assistant to Sasha Wlatz. His own work, both as a choreographer and as a director, shows his interest in combining his musical and dance backgrounds, tirelessly exploring the relationship between both disciplines, and endlessly questioning the role played by music within the theatrical event. Strong believer and defender of genuine artistic collaborations, he develops his projects around them: he invited Luc Dunberry (with whom he shares an important body of work), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damian Jalet to take part and co-direct his project d’Avant. 

His most recent work includes III with Midori Seiler and Martí Corbera, Re-fraction (desde mis ojos), with Eva Yerbabuena), and Carnación, with Rocío Molina and El Niño de Elche. His latest collaboration is Escape valse, around Ravel’s La valse, with the Berlin orchestra Stegreif. He also teaches and regularly gives workshops and masterclasses around the world, and is a guest professor at Folkwang University of the Arts.