BIOGRAPHY

​Rutkay Özpinar is a Dutch/Turkish contemporary dancer and choreographer born in 1991 in Doetinchem, The Netherlands and started dancing at the age of 10. After having done many styles of dance, he had decided at the age of 19 to focus on contemporary dance and started his study at Codarts, university for the Arts in Rotterdam (2010-2012). Rutkay has danced in companies such as
De Dutch Junior Dance Division and Introdans. At De Dutch Junior Dance Division he discovered his choreographic talent and continued in 2014 his journey with Korzo and became a choreographer. His first creation ‘As if you weren’t…’ for Here we live and now (Production of Korzo & Nederlands Dans Theater) became a successful debut. Even more successful was his second creation ‘Grip’ which was invited straight after it’s premier for Free to Move Gala and Duo/Solo Festival de Danse in Senegal. Besides creating, Rutkay also dances in his own creations. After a couple of award nominations Rutkay recently became in 2016 one of the winners of the BNG Bank Prize for excellent talent.

Rutkay's creations are based on emotional experiences. Not only from himself but also the stories of others. His inspirations are his beloved ones that bring lots of emotions alive in him and then exposes the creativity that comes from it in his creations. Rutkay’s creations always tell a story which makes it readable for the audience. The movements itself contain more abstraction than literal  translation which gives the audience the freedom to bring the story alive in their own way.  
Music and musicality are for him as important as the vocabulary of his choreographies. His style is recognizable by it's technicality, very organic movements and Tutting which is a style that origins from hip-hop where only the arms move. These elements cause different contrasts in his work But Rutkay gives Tutting a contemporary twist in his style.

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