Bruno Beltrão was born in 1979 in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro in southeast Brazil. At the age of 13 he started street dance, and in 1996 he founded Grupo de Rua de Niterói (Niterói Street Group) together with his friend Rodrigo Bernardi. They focused their activities on dance competitions. Later, he began to lose interest in street dance, but after coming into contact with contemporary dance at university, he dedicated himself to reinterpreting hip hop. Since Bernardi left Grupo de Rua in 2001, Beltrão has taken the lead, doing choreography and production for most of their premiered pieces. He has earned great acclaim around the world for his unique choreography style by combining various dance elements including hip hop to create abstract landscapes on stage. He has won many awards for his works, including “Upcoming Choreographer of the Year” from Ballet-Tanz Magazine in 2005 and the “Bessies New York Dance and Performance Award” in 2010.