Cat Ruka

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.[3] She affiliates to the Ngāpuhi and Waitaha iwi.[3]

Ruka completed a bachelor's degree, a post-graduate diploma and a master's degree in dance studies at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.[3] She lectured in performing arts at Manukau Institute of Technology for 10 years, and was artistic director of Tempo Dance Festival in 2020.[4][5][6]

In 2018 Ruka along with Carrie Rae Cunningham mentored FRESH, an emerging dance programme in the Tempo Dance Festival.[7]

In 2020, Ruka was appointed executive director of the Basement Theatre in Auckland.[3]

Playing Savage choreographed and performed by Cat Ruka was presented in the 2010 Kōwhiti Festival of Māori Contemporary Dance at Soundings Theatre, Te Papa, Wellington.[8]

Ruka choreographed the Manukau Institute of Technology's first production in 2011, a South Auckland version of West Side Story.[9]

Created and performed in 2011 by Ruka and dancer and performance artist Josh Rutter NEW TREATY MILITIA is a production developed in Berlin, Germany as part of the Matchpoint Choreographer Meeting, a 7 day event curated by Jochen Roller and Anna Wagner. NEW TREATY MILITIA premiered at the Hebbel am Ufer performance centre in Berlin, and then toured to: Boutique Studios, Brooklyn New York; Tempo Dance Festival, Q Theatre; Southside Arts Festival, Ōtara; 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.[10][11]

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."[12][13]

In 2017 Ruka directed Neon Bootleg created by Moe Laga-Fa'aofo and produced by FAFSWAG at Basement Theatre.[14]

Ruka created a dance film installation zodiac as part of Embodied contemplation: A mixed bill at the Basement Theatre in 2019.[15]

In 2019 Ruka was the keynote speaker at the Tiny Performance Festival in Otautahi Christchurch where she talked of 'performance as medicine'.[16]