Ana Laguna was born in Zaragoza, Spain. She studied ballet with Maria de Avila and began dancing for a smaller ballet company in Madrid before moving to Sweden in 1974 to join the Cullberg Ballet at the age of 19. She was a soloist and toured the world (from the Met in New York to a small stage in Bollnäs) in many works by choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Maurice Béjart, Christopher Bruce, Ohad Naharin and Mats Ek. For a year, she was also employed by NDT (Nederlands Dans Theater) under the artistic direction of Jiří Kylián.
After leaving the Cullberg Ballet in 1993, Ana Laguna continued to dance and act as a freelancer, as well as working as a choreographer's assistant, not least in Mats Ek's productions. She has also continued to dance, including tours with Mikhail Baryshnikov, and collaborated with Pina Bausch. She has also danced in the Royal Swedish Ballet's Julia & Romeo (premiere 2013) and A Cup of Coffee (2025), both choreographed by Mats Ek.
Ana Laguna has received many awards and distinctions over the years, such as the Nijinsky Prize (Monaco), Premio Nacional de Danza (Spain), Commandeur des arts et lettres (France), Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes (Spain), Prix Benois-Moscow Massine-Positano (Italy-Russia) and an honorary doctorate in Romania. In Sweden, she was appointed professor of dance by the government in 2000 and in 2006 became the first dancer outside the Royal Swedish Ballet to be appointed Dancer of the Royal Court. In 2020, she received the Gannevik Prize.
