Luz Arcas | La Phármaco

Luz Arcas, winner of Spain’s National Dance Award 2024, is a dancer, choreographer and stage director. She holds degrees in choreography from the María de Ávila Conservatory in Madrid and in stage direction from the Royal School of Dramatic Art.

She founded the La Phármaco company in 2009.

Her latest creations are: Morphine (2026), a dance solo with dramaturgy by Pedro G Romero. Fragments of the piece have been shown at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the Kadist Gallery in Paris and the Bozar in Brussels, and it premiered at the Teatro de la Abadía in Madrid, coproducer of the show.

And Tierras raras (Rare earths, 2025), premiered at the Madrid en danza festival (Teatros del Canal) produced in collaboration with the Mercat de les Flors (Barcelona) and Ma-scène nationale Pays de Montbèliard (France).

She is currently working on the creation of a new piece, Masa, for the Compañía Nacional de Danza (Spain), which is set to premiere at Matadero (Madrid) in May 2026.

Her previous work is collected in two projects: Bekristen/Tríptico de la Prosperidad (2019-2023), consisting of the pieces La domesticación, Somos la guerra and La buena obra, co-produced by the Autumn Festival, the Condeduque Centre for Contemporary Culture, Teatros del Canal in Madrid, the Teatro Central in Seville and the Graner Centre for Contemporary Creation in Barcelona, and Ciclo de los milagros (2020-2022), consisting of the pieces Toná, Trilla and Mariana, the latter co-produced by the Seville Flamenco Biennial, Teatros del Canal in Madrid and Ma-scène nationale Pays de Montbèliard.

She has also choreographed works for the Víctor Ullate Ballet (2018), the National Dance Company of El Salvador (2019 and 2021) and the IPCNA in Peru (2021). She has choreographed the opera Rigoletto (2023), directed by Miguel del Arco and produced by the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Tel Aviv Opera, the ABAO Bilbao Opera and the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville. She has directed and choreographed the play Bordo Poniente, produced by the University and FIL of Guadalajara, the UNAM and the DAJU of Mexico City (Mexico, 2024).

As a stage director, she has created Todas las santas (2022), in collaboration with Salvadoran actresses Egly Larreynaga and Alicia Chong, co-produced by the FIT of Cádiz; and Psicosis 4.48 (2023), co-produced by the Teatro Español in Madrid, for which the protagonist, Natalia Huarte, received the Max Award for Best Female Performance (2024).

She has also carried out artistic projects in India (New Delhi, National School of Drama 2015) and Equatorial Guinea (Malabo, 2015-2016).

She is the author of the book Pensé que bailar me salvaría (I Thought Dancing Would Save Me), published by Contintametienes, which has just been released in its second edition.

Luz Arcas was awarded the II Godot Prize in 2023 for the best dance work for Mariana, and was a finalist for Best Female Dance Performer at the Talía Awards in 2023. She was a finalist at the Max Awards in several categories with Somos la guerra in 2022, and for Best Dance Performer with Kaspar Hauser. El huérfano de Europa in 2017. She received the El Ojo Crítico de Danza 2015 award and Best Dance Performer at the Lorca Awards that same year. She is the winner of the Injuve 2009 and Málaga Crea 2009 awards.