RUBY
"Escucho. Aprendo. Siento. Me muevo." - "I listen. I learn. I feel. I move."
“Meet the Artist-Activist Liz Lerman Says She’d “Follow Anywhere””
Grounding prayer
“May we ground ourselves in gratitude. May we ground ourselves in love. May we ground ourselves in our ancestors’ experiences and the divine presence of what’s to come.”
Inspired by the creation process of Breaking Pachanga with Delia Ibañez, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and the power of manifestation and imagination.
Photo by Ervin Arana
Announcing The APAP Honors 2024 Awardees:
The Spark of Change award honors an emergent individual under the age of 40 or group less than 15 years in existence, who demonstrates trail-blazing innovation and vision in the presenting, creative producing, booking and touring field. The award recognizes a professional or group taking an inventive, ground-breaking and revolutionary approach in their work, addressing a field-wide challenge with promising impact, or championing an underrepresented yet critical perspective to sustain the presenting, booking and touring industry.
ABOUT
Biography
Ruby Morales is committed to equity, facilitating life-affirming spaces, and cultivating community relationships rooted in reciprocity, trust, and love through life and her artmaking. She’s a dance artivist investigating culturally informed teaching methods, circular leadership models, and her relationship with movement as a bgirl and Mexican style cumbia. After receiving a BFA from Arizona State University she completed Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute, The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Undoing Racism Training, and is continuously training in breaking and learning about hip hop philosophy/theory. She is currently touring with internationally renowned creative Liz Lerman performing her most recent work Wicked Bodies, CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater, and Tucson, AZ based choreographer Yvonne Montoya. She creates work locally in Arizona and recently presented and toured her own evening length show, Breaking Pachanga as part of her Arts in the Park partnership with the City of Tempe. She is CONTRA-TIEMPO’s Director of Development and co-founder of The Pachanga COLLECTIVE in Arizona. She is an advocate for artists in the state of Arizona, disseminating information and reallocating resources equitably. Ruby Morales is always continuing to learn and lead as a previous B.A.C. Fellowship Mentor, a 2021 National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Advocacy Leadership Fellow, a 2021 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow, 2023 NALAC Leadership Institute participants, and 2023 Critical Response Process Certification Program participant. Locally, she has been awarded a Research and Development Grant and Professional Development Grant from the AZ Commission on the Arts, The Artist Forward Fund from Artlink, a Phoenix Project Support Grant, and a Phoenix Stabilization Grant.
Artistic Statement
"I am an artista who is inspired by the effects of emotions on a human and their relationship with the world. The work I create comes from my embodied ancestral knowledge and relationship with the world around me. I am committed to saying yes to myself creatively and to my lived experiences as a Mexican woman, bgirl, first generation American, and progressive thought provoker.”
Awards Received
2024
Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Inaugural Spark of Change Award
2023
Phoenix Center for The Arts Performing Artist Mayor’s Arts Award
GRANTS RECEIVED
2023
Phoenix Arts & Culture Artist to Work
Arizona Commission on the Arts Artist Opportunity Grant
Phoenix Arts & Culture Project Support Grant
Arizona Commission on the Arts Creative Capacity Grant
2022
Artlink’s The Artist Forward Fund (TAFF)
Arizona Commission on the Arts Creative Capacity Grant
Arizona Commission on the Arts Artist Opportunity Grant
2021
Tempe Performance Arts in The Park Grant
Phoenix Project Support Program
Phoenix Stabilization Grant
2020
Tempe Vibrant City Grant
2019
Arizona Commission on the Arts Professional Development Grant