Born in Lisbon, Rui Horta started to dance at the age of 17 at the Ballet Gulbenkian. He studied, danced and taught contemporary dance for several years in New York, before returning to Portugal, where he directed Lisbon Dance Company, and was one of the leading forces in the development of the new Portuguese dance. Later with his own free-lance group, he created “Line and Interiors“. With these two pieces he began touring in Europe. He was then invited to start S.O.A.P., a residence Company at the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt.

With S.O.A.P. he created six full-length-programs which toured extensively all over the world, in some of the most important festivals and venues, such as: Steps '92 in Zürich; the turning world '92, '93, '95, '97 and ’99 at The Place Theater in London; Festival International de Nouvelle Danse '92 in Montréal, where he received the 2nd prize from the audience; Oriente Occidente '93 in Rovereto/Italy; Encontros Acarte '93 at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon; “Dancin' City '94 and '96 in Copenhagen; International Theater Festival '95 in Tokyo; Tanz im August '96 at Hebbel-Theater in Berlin, Vooruit in Gent; Joyce Theater in New York; Harbour Front Center in Toronto; National Arts Center in Ottawa; Moskojew Theater in Moskow, as well as at Maison de la Danse/Lyon and Théâtre de la Ville/Paris in 1995/1996/1997/1998, etc…

Rui Horta won the 1st prize at the „Rencontre Internationales de Bagnolet“, the „Bonnie Bird Award“ and has received several awards from the press. With the Goethe Institute he has often collaborated in different international projects, such as workshops in light design in Budapest and choreographic courses in Moscow, Madrid, Gent, Salvador de Bahia etc...

He has curate several creative projects such as the SIWIC in Zurich, Switzerland, the coaching project 2000 in Dusseldorf and the COLINA project, etc… He was invited as a guest teacher in some of the most important dance school in Europe such as the Laban Centre, Conservatoire National de Paris, Conservatoire National de Lyon, London School of Contemporary Dance etc…

From 1998 to 2000, Rui Horta worked in München as choreographer in residence at the Muffathalle with the support of the Cultural Council of this City. For this new company (Rui Horta.stage works) he has created a solo piece with the actor/dancer Anton Skrzypiciel “Bones and Oceans” and two new group productions “Zeitraum” and “Blindspot”, which have also toured extensively during the late nineties.

In 1998 he was awarded the German Producers Prize for Choreography, a pool of 14 theater producers awarding every two years a prize to remarkable work in the German independent dance scene.

In August 2000 he returned to Portugal (Montemor-o-Novo), where he established a multi disciplinary research and residence center O Espaço do Tempo, in a old monestery of the 16th century – today one of the most important production centres in Portugal.

In 2001 he directed his first movie “RUGAS”, and was rewarded for his latest production “PIXEL” the Acarte award, prize for the best production of that year.  In 2002 he created “LP” for his own company and in 2003 he has staged the new production of the French nouvelle cirque company “Les Arts Sauts”

As a free lance choreographer he has created works for renowned dance companies such as Cullberg Ballet, Ballet Gulbenkian, Nederlands DansTheater II, Opera de Marseille Dance, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Icelandic Ballet, Noordans, Scottish Dance Theatre etc…

He has also staged Stravinsky's opera „The Rakes Progress“ at Theater Basel, for which he also designed lights and sets.

At the moment he has been touring internationally with his last production SETUP. In 2006 Rui Horta, together with João Paulo Santos, created a new piece of new circus in the area of Chinese Mast, that was premiere in the Avignon Festival. In 2007, besides a new work with the Staats Theater Nuernberg. He will also work with the Malmö Opera and he will premiérè a new independent production during the Fall in C.C.B. - Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisboa.