Lisbeth Gruwez (°Kortrijk, Belgium 1977) started classical ballet at the age of 6 and in 1991 she was admitted at the ‘Stedelijk Instituut voor Ballet’ in Antwerp where she could combine a professional dance education with high school. Afterwards she studied contemporary dance at P.A.R.T.S. .
She started her professional career with Ultima Vez, in the Pasolini Project Of Heaven and Hell and Away From Sleeping Dogs with Iztock Kova. Since 1999 Lisbeth Gruwez has been working with Jan Fabre, performing in As Long As the World Needs a Warrior’s Soul, followed by Je suis sang, the production for the Cour d’Honneur in Avignon. In 2001 she starred in Pierre Coulibeuf’s film Les Guerriers de la beauté about Jan Fabre’s work. In 2002 she starred in Images of Affection for Needcompany|Jan Lauwers. A year later Lisbeth worked with Grace Ellen Barkey in Few Things and Cry Me a River by Riina Saastamoinen. Still in 2003 she danced in Foi , which was a production by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. In 2004 Jan Fabre created for and with her Quando l’uomo principale è una donna. She also participated in the installation Origine along with Peter Verhelst.
Together with Maarten Van Cauwenberghe she founded Voetvolk in 2006. In 2007 they premièred with their first creation Forever Overhead. In 2008 Lisbeth danced with Melanie Lane in I!2, a creation by Arco Renz/Kobalt Works. That year she also had a leading role in Lost Persons Area, a movie by Caroline Strubbe. This motion picture was nominated for the Cannes filmfestival and for her role she was nominated as Best Female Actress at the Flemisch Movie Awards. Again in 2008 she created Birth of Prey, a performance which is still touring. In 2009 she choreographed and danced together with Juliette Lewis in a videoclip for her band Juliette & the Licks. In 2010 Lisbeth created her first groupperformance HeroNeroZero and played the leading roll in a short movie by Silvia Defranc. In 2011 she created the performances L’Origine and It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend, which toured continuously in 2012 and 2013.
In 2013, she also was a dance-coach for some Toneelhuis - productions (Bart Meuleman and FC Bergman) and worked together with Belgian photographer Dirk Braeckman. In 2014, Lisbeth Gruwez created AH/HA, the first group performance of Voetvolk.