ana maria laguna caso was born 16 may 1954 in zaragoza, spain. laguna grew up in spain, beginning her ballet studies with maria de avila and by age eighteen was dancing at the "real ballet de cámara" (the royal chamber ballet). in 1973, she was offered work at the cullberg ballet in sweden and was soon starring in many productions of the company. her breakthrough performance to international recognition occurred in the 1976 production of "st. george and the dragon" by the choreographer mats ek, whom she later married. in the 1980-1981 season, she performed with nederlands dans theater, but returned to cullberg for the opportunity to dance in two works she had long coveted, "sonate à trois" by béla bartók and choreographed by maurice béjart and "miss julie" by ture rangströn and choreographed by birgit cullberg. though she had only two and a half weeks to learn miss julie, her performance with rudolf nureyev was one of her career highlights. other high-profile roles include the title role in ek's "giselle" (1982), which was created by him for her and for which she also received the french video dance prize for the best interpretation of "giselle" in a tv version. carmen was another of the dancer's favorite roles to perform for which she won an emmy award.